#and it was the first manga I read. I purchased all 25 volumes at once because I was like

[karlyboyyy]

Hello everyone I am rewatching Kamisama Kiss and um. Yeah. I still really love Tomoe 😭

[simplefelicity]

What I bought in 2023

this is the first in a series of posts in which i reflect on my 2023 from a financial perspective, using data from my financial journal.

initially i wanted to just list everything i paid for chronologically, but then i realized that data without analysis is not going to be much useful. so here is all i bought in 2024, divided in categories!

these are all unnecessary purchases (so no groceries, rent, etc).

material stuff

a kpop photocard. i’ve already talked about this, i think. there were a couple of months at the beginning of the year in which i desperately wanted to collect photocards of this particular kpop artist. i already had 2 but when i finally decided to buy this third one, i realized that i was quite underwhelmed. i do appreciate them and look at them from time to time but the itch to spend even more money on them disappeared. i’m glad i did buy it, though, because otherwise i would have spent months obsessively thinking about wanting to buy one. giving in once meant peace of mind afterward.

plastic reusable water bottle. kind of a fail. i would love to use it more, but i’d need to hand wash it (if i don’t want the water to taste like soap) and i just can’t be bothered. i’m sure i’ll use it while traveling. also, it was super cheap for a reason! the nozzle is too big and uncomfortable. oh well, you live and learn.

new passport photos. that was unfortunately necessary & they are horrible photos too. frustrating.

socks. i was on a trip and forgot to bring socks, so i had to buy some there.  

jewelry box. got it secondhand on Vinted after much thought. i don’t have much of a jewelry collection (if any) but i’d like to. i also wanted to get rid of all the small boxes and condense everything in 1 place. which worked for a while, but then someone gifted me more boxes and i can’t get rid of those ones, so that was kind of a fail.

2 secondhand books. i seriously do not need more books (i own like 20 that i haven’t read yet) but i have already read & resold one book so i’m not bothered about it. my rules with book buying are: 1) only if it’s secondhand, 2) only one for every secondhand bookshop i visit, 3) only stuff from my TBR list (that’s a more flexible rule, though). i’d say that it pretty much worked.

1 manga volume. I've been collecting this series for years because i love the art but, i've come to realize, not so much the story. i've decided to not purchase the next volume and am debating whether to sell the whole series as well.

yarn. i bought yarn for a sweater, for socks (three times), and for a cardigan (and its pattern). all in all, i’m satisfied with this amount. knitting can get expensive but i only bought yarn for planned projects, used my stash for at least another small 5 projects and i don’t think i’ll have to buy sock yarn for a while! money wise, i only had one doubt. a friend who also crochets told me that the website i buy my garment yarn at is too expensive compared to others. i thought long and hard about it & finally remembered that my friend’s cheaper yarn is super itchy. which is fine for her, as she mostly crochets bags, but i don’t knit bags! i knit sweaters! i’m fine with my yarn being a bit pricier if it makes for a comfier sweater.

25 padded envelopes. i used them when i sell my stuff online. i bought them new but secondhand on Vinted for a good price.

gifts. i bought 1 gift for a birthday and 2 for graduations. at the end of the year i tried to be smart and knit 2 gifts, but then i had to pay for shipping anyway so it didn’t save me any money. still, you know. it’s gifts and it’s my friends and i won’t be cheap with them.

immaterial stuff & experiences

i ate out with friends 3 times this year. the other times we just met and sat on a bench and talked.

movie ticket for Barbie. my only cinema going experience this year. that’s depressing. i’d love to go more in 2024.

underground ticket. that one time i forgot my underground card. ugh.

subscription to one of the secondhand book-selling websites i use. it’s the only one i pay for and it’s only 2€ a year. basically, it allows you to list more than 50 books at a time. i have 63 right now, so i’ll have to pay again this year, but hopefully in 2024 i will sell enough books to get under 50 & not have to pay again in 2025 :D

a very small charity donation. i sold more books than usual that month and decided to contribute a little to (hopefully) make the world a better place. it felt really good and i would like to do it again in 2024. but i need to set some rules or i might end up donating all of my savings.

trips

i went on 3 trips this year.

i bought train tickets and meals while there. i didn’t have to pay  for accommodation as thankfully i went to visit friends and stayed at their houses. i also bought some souvenirs (in moderation!), like a fridge magnet and a christmas tree ornament.

in conclusion & plans for next year

well, damn. i spent way less than i thought or expected! there were even 2 months in which i actually spent 0€. which i’m sure felt great at the time, but i quickly forgot about it & thought i'd never accomplish something like that, ever. queue to feeling guilty over spending money.

my only true indulgencies were while i was on a trip. and i remember feeling quite guilty about spending money while there, as well.

but that’s why i save money: to buy expensive yarn and enjoy myself while traveling. so why should i feel guilty about doing exactly that?

basically, i want to spend a bit more money next year if it will make my life easier or happier, without feeling guilty. I've tried to do that during december already but finding the balance between overspending and being a Scrooge is going to be tough.

[razberryyum]

So you’re done with The Untamed and want more, what now?

Reposting this since I’ve updated it with new info/links. Again, I entered the fandom via The Untamed so I’m by no means a MDZS expert, just tried my best gathering all the resources I can which I hope will help some new Untamed/MDZS fan out there. If you spot any errors, don’t yell at me, just let me know and I’ll correct it as best I can, especially for any future reposts.

READ THE NOVEL

Read the original web novel the show was based on: The Untamed (aka “CQL” or “Chen Qing Ling”) was adapted from the BL web novel, Mo Dao Zu Shi (aka ”MDZS” or Grandmaster of Demonic Cultivation) by author Mo Xiang Tong Xiu (”MXTX”). Yes the novel came first, CQL is only an adaptation. In the novel, you get the uncensored romance of Wei Wuxian and Lan Wangji, where they are canonically married and living happily ever after. The novel goes full into R18 territory so please tread carefully.

All four volumes of the novel can be purchased from the original publishing site, JJWXC. The site’s in chinese but here’s a tutorial on how to navigate it and purchase the books:  JJWXC Tutorial Link.

There’s also the option of purchasing the physical copies from Yesasia which might be easier but it’s also more expensive since they’re the middle man: Yesasia MDZS Link

It would be wonderful if you can support MXTX-laoshi by actually buying the books, especially since the cover art is so beautiful and the extra chapter volumes come with a lot of awesome extra goodies, but of course there’s also the option of reading the fan translations graciously provided by the Exiled Rebels Scanlations team at their site:  

They translated all the novels including the bonus chapters in their own free time and are providing the fanslations for free so please give them some love for all their hard work.  

WATCH THE ANIME (aka “Donghua” in Chinese)

Watch the anime based on the novel: The donghua was released before The Untamed. Two seasons are already available (23 eps total) with a third season in production and a special chibi version of the donghua in production as well. The Eng-subbed donghua can be seen using the WeTV app or on Youtube:  YT MDZS Donghua Playlist

Grant it, the donghua is even more censored than The Untamed, but the donghua team still managed to sneak in some easter eggs (f.e. WangXian naked bathing scene in the cold springs from the novel...in The Untamed they were fully clothed) and more importantly, the animation is just gorgeous so it’s absolutely worth a watch despite the censorship. 

READ THE MANGA (aka “Manhua” in Chinese)

Read the manhua which is ongoing and is being officially translated by WeComics, available on their app for free. Search under the name “Mo Dao Zu Shi”.

Unfortunately, the official translations are more than 20 chaps behind the raws and there have been complaints about the quality of the translations in the past, but I believe they’re starting to improve so since they’re official, it’s always better to support the official source.

The raw untranslated manhua can be found on the Kuaikanmanhua app. Other than being in Chinese, some of the chapters (f.e. the most recent ones) are behind a paywall, but here’s a tutorial on how to purchase the chapters, provided by @chiharuzushi on Twitter:  Kuaikanmanhua Tutorial

The chapters are quite cheap...I purchase 1000 KK coins for 10 rmb ($0.14) and each chapter is only 68 KK coins so even if we end up with 500 chapters it’ll still be...er...quite cheap overall (don’t make me do the actual math). The most painful part is figuring out how to set up the Kuaikanmanhua account, but otherwise, if you can read Chinese or know enough of the story by now that you don’t really need to read the words, the manhua is definitely worth reading because it’s less censored than The Untamed and the donghua. 

LISTEN TO THE AUDIO DRAMA

Listen to the audio drama, which is at this point the most faithful and LEAST censored adaptation of the novel we will probably ever get! Wei Ying’s voice actor in The Untamed is the voice actor for his audio drama counterpart. (Yes, almost everyone in The Untamed is dubbed by a voice actor, EXCEPT for Nie Huaisang. Ji Li, the actor for NHS, was the only one who used his own voice. Lan Zhan in The Untamed shares the same voice actor as his character in the donghua). 

Each episode art of the audio drama is AMAZING. Google Translate works well on the site, you’d want to see the listeners’ comments cuz they’re just adorable and hilarious.

Official links on Maoer FM:

Season 1: Maoer FM S1 Link

Season 2: Maoer FM S2 Link

Season 3: Maoer FM S3 Link

The audio drama was supervised by MXTX-laoshi, the author of the novel, so a lot of love and care went into the production, and it shows. The audio drama is behind a paywall but I remember it’s relatively inexpensive. Here’s the tutorial on how to purchase the audio drama from the Maoer FM site:  Maoer FM Tutorial Link

Ngl, it was tough at first navigating all that, Google translate helped, but once I figured it out, it was all so worth it because in addition to the MDZS, the site houses a lot of other wonderful audio dramas. There are also MDZS fan songs on the site that are near professional quality and oh so good.

Suibian Subs have kindly translated the episodes and their translations are available here:  Suibian Subs MDZS Audio Drama

Show them some love too for translating the episodes, but please if you can, purchase the episodes so you can support the audio drama team which have done an amazing job.

There’s even a Japanese audio drama which the Chinese AD team helped spearhead, available on the MIMI FM app. Here’s a tutorial on how to purchase the eps (half of the first season is out): MIMI FM Tutorial

It’s in Japanese but just follow the pictures. I’m hoping that the Japanese audio drama will end up being the MOST uncensored version of MDZS since Japanese BL dramas are not afraid (and allowed) to go all the way to R18. XD

MORE THE UNTAMED CONTENT

Lastly, if you’re just thirsting for more Untamed content, there are two spin-off movies you can watch. The first one, The Living Dead, is kind of centered on Wen Ning and Sizhui post-CQL. 

The second one, Fatal Journey, is focused on the Nie brothers, Nie Mingjue and Nie Huaisang, with a cameo by Jin Guangyao. It takes place prior to Wei Ying’s return from the dead.

Of the two movies, I definitely recommend Fatal Journey more. Both movies are available on the iQiyi app, which offers a one month free trial for first members. Each month afterwards for VIP is $6.99.

You can also go on the WeTV app for even more Untamed extras: WeTV put out a special edition cut of the show which tightened up the story AND features the original ending that was intended before censorship forced the production team to come up with the more ambiguous one we saw in its original run. It was a simple matter of rearranging certain scenes and getting rid of the separation part, but imho it really made all the difference to the ending.

There’s a ton of behind-the-scene cuteness that you can watch and also concerts with the cast in Thailand and Nanjing. VIP subscription to the WeTV app is $5.99/month and the Nanjing concert is for rent for 3 months at about the same price.  

The show also put out two official soundtracks, one for the vocals and one for the score. Both are available on Amazon and iTunes. For Amazon though, you can search under “The Untamed” but they did this weird thing where the vocals one is listed as “The Untamed (Chinoiserie Music Album)” (wtf) while the score is just listed as “The Untamed (Original Soundtrack)”.

Finally, most of the male members of the cast took part in a fan meet and greet at the start of the show, before it became hugely popular. The entire meet and greet is available on youtube subbed: The Untamed Fan Meeting

That’s it for The Untamed and MDZS. If you end up liking the novel enough to want to read more by the same author, MXTX-laoshi has also written two other BL novels, The Scum Villain Self-Saving System (aka “SVSSS” or “Scum Villain”) and Heaven’s Official Blessing (aka “TGCF” after its Chinese title). Both have been fully translated by fans (but always try to buy the original if you have the means, as a way to support the author!): 

SVSSS Translation: BC Novels Link

TGCF Translation chaps 1 - 24:  Sakhyulations Link

TGCF Translation chaps 25 - End: Suika & Rynn Link

As with reading any BL novel (aka “danmei novel” for Chinese BL books), please heed the warnings and if it’s not your cup of tea, just exit out of the page and move on with your life. No big deal, right? 

Anyway, hope all this info dump helps someone! If you’re brand spanking new to this fandom, welcome, and I’m so jealous of you! Would love to relive stepping into the world of MDZS/MXTX/danmei novels all over again since I feel like I’m already running out of stuff to read and I’m beginning to panic a little. 

Happy watching/reading/listening!  

[the-bejeesus]

To Those Who Say “I’m not gonna catch up on One Piece until it’s finished. Why would I watch/read 1000+ episodes/chapters when I don’t even get to know how the story ends?”

      Now for the past few years, when I came across somebody who said this, my rebute would be something like “Well the series is great already. It doesn’t really matter if I don’t know how it ends, because the journey itself is enjoyable.” or “Man if that’s your excuse, who you gonna explain why you read/watch stuff like Berserk, Hunter X Hunter, JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure, and My Hero Academia? Newsflash, they aren’t done yet.” But it came across my mind that I can now apply a completely different approach:

“If you start watching/reading at this pace right now, it will be over by the time you catch up.”

      If you’re a fan of the series, you’ll know that for awhile now Oda has been saying that he plans to end the series in just 5-4 years. Now he’s made lots of claims in the past that turned out to be ridiculous. However, many One Piece researchers have compiled his claims and found out that they only get more accurate as time goes on, with the most ridiculous claims being found to be myths. And with the most recent claims of ending the series in less than 5 years, even his editors who are usually skeptical have started to trust that he can do this. After all, he has officially set there to be only one more saga (which isn’t necessarily one arc, but it’s either going to be 1-2 major arcs or an anthology of 5-6 shorter arcs). And now that we can trust this claim, we can essentially extrapolate how many chapters/episodes are left and what pace we have to binge to catch up at just the right time.

If you plan to read the manga (black and white):

The manga in black in white is a perfectly fine way to enjoy One Piece. It’s what Oda draws, it’s how he intends it to be viewed, and best of all, it will be the first version of publication to finish.

     Out of the 1223 weeks since the first chapter published in July 19, 1997, 1000 chapters have published, meaning on average he publishes 42 chapters per year, or in other words, there are only 10 hiatuses per year (including holidays where WSJ does not publish). Now if I wanted to be more accurate, I’d only look at the chapters published this year, to exclude outliers like how he had no hiatuses for the first 200 chapters, or how he had a 4-week hiatus during the timeskip, but 2020 has been a bit crazy, so we’re not doing that for this or any of the others.

     Going off of this, the final chapter would be chapter 1212 in December 28, 2025 (yes, the 28th would be a Sunday again.) So here’s how you’d calculate the pace in which you need to read One Piece, and really this is how we’ll calculate it for every version)

     Now I know math is boring, but the reason I’m showing this to you is because the amount of weeks until One Piece ends will vary based on when you start this binge. Chances are you aren’t going to start the day you see this post, and there’s an even greater chance you won’t see this post the day it’s posted. For every example I’m going to assume you started binging on December 28, 2020. Now let’s try to use it for this example.

     And there’s your answer, just read 4-5 chapters per week. By the end, One Piece should be nearly over or have very recently ended. To put that into a different perspective, you could purchase and read just two volumes per month and you’ll be at prime pace. Or you could read one chapter every day, but only on weekdays.  If you want to, you can see this calculation in action in graph form.

     While this is a very rudimentary graph, it’s a basic visualization of what we’re calculating here. We’re calculating what speed we need to binge to catch up at exactly the right moment. I say exact, but ultimately no one can predict how many chapters there will be exactly, nor how many hiatuses Oda will go on during it. It will be important, as you’re nearing the end, to find a spoiler-free way to keep up on how close One Piece is to ending. To know whether you ought to speed up or slow down.

If you plan to watch the anime (subtitled):

For years now people have hated on the anime “terrible animation!” “terrible pacing” but at the end of the day, it’s the more popular version. Or the more viewed version I should say. And personally, I think that once you acknowledge its problems and learn how to deal with them, it’s a perfectly fine experience. There’s enough good voice acting and enough good storytelling that you’re easily able to ignore the problems. Plus, the animation has substantially improved since Wano.

      Now for this we’re going to have to change a lot of variables to get this right. We’re going to have to adjust when publication started, and recalculate when One Piece will end by looking at how slowly the anime adapts the manga, and how behind it is. The anime aired on October 20, 1999, and has aired 956 episodes since then. This means on average they air 44.9 episodes per year, meaning there is pretty much only 7 breaks the entire year. With these 956 episodes, they have adapted 955 chapters, making the pace almost exactly one chapter per episode. However this is really inaccurate, considering all the better-paced arcs earlier on in the story. Looking solely at episodes 2012 and onwards, the anime adapts at a pace of 0.65 chapters/episode.

     Knowing that there are roughly 212 chapters left, and Toei adapts at 0.65 chapters per episode, we can assume that there are going to be roughly 324 episodes left. That sounds like too many, but keep in mind that there will be several, several instances where the manga will be on hiatus whereas the anime will keep on airing. Knowing there are approximately 324 episodes left, and that the anime only takes about 7 breaks a year, we can assume that it will take 7 years, or 374.49 weeks before the anime will end. So now we have the information we need to do the math again.

x = 1280/374.49

x = 3.417 episodes/week.

     It may seem like a more relaxed binge, since you get a whole 2 extra years to binge, and you only have to do 3-4 episodes per week, compared to the 4-5 chapters. But keep in mind that these episodes are 24 minutes each. Still not at all bad, but you will be spending more time on it overall.

If you plan to watch One Pace:

One Pace is a fan project that edits the anime so that filler and padding is cut, other edits will be made to make the anime more manga-accurate, such as reorganizing scenes, or adding title cards where absent. Originally only used by a niche number of One Piece fans, One Pace has grown in popularity, and has tried to improve its quality to accommodate more fans, such as making their episodes Dual Audio (meaning you can switch between the dub and original Japanese audio tracks), and including Spanish subtitles.

      You’d think we’d have to adjust for when One Pace began, how slowly One Pace catches up, and the works, but there’s not much to calculate. Fortunately for us, no matter how far behind One Pace is on editing the current arc, they always like to wrap things up just a few weeks within when an arc ended, if not the very same week. So really all we have to calculate is how many One Pace episodes there will be by the end of all this, so that we know how many you’ll need to watch per week.

      Looking solely at what they’ve covered so far, One Pace has taken 573 episodes and condensed it down to 259 episodes. That’s a pace of 2.21 anime episodes/ paced episode. Earlier we calculated that there would be 324 episodes of the anime left, making for 1280 episodes total. This would mean that there would be around 578 One Pace episodes by the end. And One Pace would probably wrap up in, let’s say 376 weeks, because as I said, they’ll probably finish editing the final arc a week or two after the last episode airs.

x = 578/376

x = 1.53 episodes per week

      Now that’s a relaxed pace. 1-2 episodes per week? That’s so slow, I’m not even sure if I’ll remember what I watched last week next time I watch some episodes. The only problem is some of the pre-timeskip still haven’t been edited. They’ll probably be done by the time they finish the final arc, but that’s not gonna work out fast enough. You’ll hit your first roadblock about 7 weeks in when you need to watch the Baratie arc and it’s not done. And don’t even get me started on how many arcs aren’t done in dub or Spanish sub yet. Hopefully you could just switch to the anime or manga when you hit these arcs, readjusting how many episodes/chapters you need to watch/read when you do. But that’s a bit of an excessive amount of math for something that’s supposed to be fun. So yeah, if you’re still convinced you shouldn’t get into One Piece until it’s ended, maybe this is the option for you.

If you plan to read the manga (Colored):

Since 2012, Shueisha has made a colorization of One Piece. It’s not a fan coloring, it’s as official as it gets. Many consider the color schemes portrayed in this version as the most canon, as the majority are pulled straight from whatever colored illustrations of Oda’s they can find. And quite frankly it makes the manga at least 10 times more beautiful. It’s especially great if you have trouble interpreting dense, small black and white panels.

      This one is a doozy. You’d think all I gotta do is calculate how far behind the colored manga usually and just adjust from there, right? Wrong. Because how far behind the colored manga is, or how frequently they release volumes in full color, is one of the most inconsistent things I have ever seen. You wanna see what I’m talking about? This is how they’ve chosen to release each volume since 2012:

Volume 1-12: July 15, 2012

Volume 13-23: September 28, 2012

Volume 24-63: December 4, 2012

Volume 64-65: April 4, 2013

Volume 66-68: December 20, 2013

Volume 69-70: August 25, 2014

Volume 71-72: September 16, 2015

Volume 73-75: October 4, 2016

Volume 76: December 2, 2016

Volume 77: March 3, 2017

Volume 78: July 2, 2017

Volume 79: September 4, 2017

Volume 80: December 4, 2017

Volume 81-82: March 3, 2018

Volume 83: October 4, 2018

Volume 84-86: August 2, 2019

Volume 87-92: September 16, 2020

     How I am supposed to find out how long it will take for Shueisha to colorize the final volume of One Piece is beyond me. I guess the first step would be to look at how far behind the manga each release was on average, but I’m going to ignore all the ones before 2013, because those were clearly just Shueisha catching up really fast cause they just started and didn’t want to be dozens of volumes behind forever. So of the 14 publications between 2013 and now, on average the last chapter of the last volume they colored was 97.78 weeks after that chapter had published in Weekly Shonen Jump. This means that if the final chapter of One Piece is chapter 1212 on December 28, 2025, then you can expect the final colored volume to publish November 14, 2027.

x = 1212/359

x = 3.37 chapters/week

     So if you prefer the manga but don’t want to read 5 chapters every week for 5 years, this might be a better option for ya. But yea, I have no doubt my prediction is at least a little off for this one.

If you plan to watch the anime (dubbed):

Unlike the 4KidsTV and Odex dubs of One Piece, the FUNimation dub is a perfect way to enjoy One Piece. The DVDs come with enjoyable commentary and a marathon mode, great for binging.

       FUNimation’s releases of the dub are inconsistent, although not nearly as erratic as the colored manga release. However, there was recently a 2-year hiatus we only just got out of. Since Episode 1′s dub in May 27, 2008, the dub has gotten as far as Episode 614. But that’s only looking at the DVD releases. If you’re willing to stream on FUNimationnow, the dub is as far as 641, and if you’re willing to digitally purchase it from an e-shop such as the Microsoft store, it goes all the way to Episode 654. With that being said, that would mean that on average, FUNimation dubs 1.004 episodes per week. Although if we go back to before the two-year hiatus so as to exclude it from the average, it’s actually 1.10 episodes per week. Not a huge difference, actually. And then if we look solely after the two-year hiatus, it’s actually 2.25 episodes per week, which is insanely faster. It’s hard to tell what the future of the dub will be. I can’t assume they’ll go this fast forever, so I’m just going to take the average of all 3 and say it’s 1.45 episodes per week. Don’t know if that’s the best mathematical approach, but the number seems about right.

     So knowing that the dub is at Episode 654 and looking at our previous guesstimation that the anime will be 1280 episodes long, we can predict that it will take 431 weeks before the dub catches up and ends. That would be in 2029! Sounds quick at first until you notice it’s 4 years behind!

x = 1280/431

x = 2.96 episodes per week

      Looks like it’s almost exactly 3 episodes per week. Not as much less of a workload as I expected, compared to catching up to the sub. You know, I figured those 4 extra years would make you binge a lot slower.

Final Thoughts:

      There’s a lot of my math that was estimation, approximations, extrapolations. Feel free to correct me or fact check me, especially if you plan on using this. I figured this would be a fun thought excercise. There’s also a lot of smaller variables I simply didn’t want to take into account because of how long this is already. For example, reading the black and white manga. The calculation can vary slightly depending on if you read it the day it’s published (which I assume would have to be a fanscan unless you can read Japanese), reading the weekly publication legally on Viz.com, waiting for the physical volume release. The dub can also vary depending on whether you buy from Microsoft, wait for the FUNimationnow release, wait for the DVDs, or wait for the Collection sets. So feel free to take this into account.

[randomreblogsandrareselfposts]

2, 3, 8, 24, 25, 31, 32, 44 (show it!).

2: Answered

3: Answered

8. What is a book that you feel guilty for not not reading?

Dammit I can’t answer this one whilst looking at my Library Thing.... or can i> *filters to books that aren’t read that I own*. Excellent. 

Ah

Yes

Wandering Son, Volume 6 by Shimura Takako. It’s a manga collection and I’ve made it through the first five volumes and they are so damn good. They portray a child growing up and trying to come to terms with being trans. But I had to drop that last volume part way through. I just... couldn’t take it any more. The feelings were far too strong for me to cope with. I haven’t bought the rest of the volumes, despite wanting to support said manga and the, frankly, awesome publication quality of the English translations - very sturdy bindings, thick creamy paper. Everything you want in a good edition that reads well and looks good.

24. How many bookshelves do you own?

Currently I own 16 bookshelves. On Tuesday that will rise to 26. Split between my place and my parents place. Though it should be noted that not all of them have book on.

25. How many books do you own?

LibraryThing currently says 676, once I remove those I no longer own, but it’s quite out of date... I’d say probably close to 700 now?

31. What was the cheapest book you bought?

Twilight by Stephanie Meyer. I bought it specifically because I had a buy one get one free thing (or maybe it was 3 for 2).. and I needed a free book. So I went with that one.

32. What was the most expensive book you bought?

Ooof. Umm....

Probably the signed, numbered, personalised leather-bound edition of Elantris by Brandon Sanderson. $100 + $56 shipping from the US. I mean... I asked my parents if they’d cover it as my birthday/christmas present. And they did. But still that’s a pretty hefty purchase.

44. What is a book that you love, but has a terrible cover?

Oh boy. I’m one of those people that judges a book by its cover when I’m browsing in shops. I’d probably say pick any US editions of my favourite books. But that’s not really in the spirit of the question.

I’ve just gone through my library thing and my mental catalog... and nope. Can’t come up one with I liked that has a terrible cover that I actually own.

[takanos-love-butt]

World’s Greatest ‘Mary - Sue’

Chapter 1: Case of Curious Kitty Onodera

((Read First:  Prologue))

The next few weeks passed without much incident. Sapphire's editor in chief still hasn't gotten around to even talking with Meiri or Takano like they had suspected...but that could be due to the fact that the cycle was now just starting to 'ripen'. And NO ONE wanted to be around the Emerald department near the end of their cycle.

"Gah...no wonder you guys start to look like crap at the end of every cycle...these authors are terrible!" Meiri said; terrible meaning they're awful with keeping deadlines and drag the editors every which way. Something in which she and other manga departments hardly ever had to face. Partially why people seemed to avoid the Emerald department around this time every month. "Are all shoujo mangaka this bad?" she continued to gripe. Meiri's appearance actually looked better than the boys'...though not by much. Her eyes looked strained and hair starting to look like she hadn't brushed it for a couple of days. She felt disgusting that she had to pile on deodorant and light body spray to cover the fact that she hadn't had time to bathe. Though...judging by the sad state of her other coworkers, neither did they... "I'm even having to sleep in the study...I can't go to bed with my husband like this," comical tears ran down her face. An equally comical vision came to mind as well: It would be of Meiri's husband with tears running down his own face trying to sleep in an empty marital bed while Meiri quarantined herself in the study. "It feels like I'm punishing him,"

"I'm sure he understands though, right?" Onodera consoled. He himself looking tired as fuck.

"I told him what I've heard, though I didn't think it would be this bad. I have to push him away when he wants to greet me with a kiss because I don't want him to smell me. But yes he understands. He made it through me being an author after all...though I was never THIS complacent..." she ground her teeth.

"How I would've loved to be your editor..." Hatori said slamming his laptop shut and shoving it into his bag. "You'd be far easier to work with than this lazy deadline breaking buffoon I have to watch over...Sorry..but I need to see to an urgent matter regarding said buffoon..."

"Take care," Takano called as he usually does when Hatori must storm away to attend to his troublesome author. "I need a smoke," he said getting up and heading to the smoker's break room. Seemed his intake of nicotine went up toward the end of cycles; though it was completely understandable for someone that took on a lot of stress despite it being sorely unhealthy. Takano made sure to ruffle Onodera's hair as he left, causing the newbie coordinator to snap back at him. Not that the editor in chief cared at all and continued on his way.

Meiri blinked at the small display before her. Onodera made it sound like he hated things like that, but the blush and somber look he had after fussing about it told her otherwise. Oh my... the yaoi mangaka smiled to herself. Perhaps working with the Emerald department might be a little more fun than she thought.

/(^x^)\

The past few days have been a little rough on Ritsu. His curiosity got the better of him and he managed to pick up the first 3 books of Meiri's most recent series. Going to Books Marimo to purchase them was even more nerve wracking. He felt far too awkward to ask for it from Marukawa's archive for very good reasons. Thankfully Yukina didn't judge or make a comment on Onodera's choices, though he'd really only met Yukina maybe once in passing.

He did find that Kisa was hanging around there a lot. Dawdling outside as if waiting for someone.

He was still there when Onodera left and even had a small chat. It turned out that he really was waiting for someone but didn't know who. Only when the conversation seemed to stall did Onodera take his leave. Still curious as to who exactly Kisa was waiting for, but since he wanted to hurry home anyway it wasn't the best time to find out.

Onodera really didn't to even sample a bit of his purchase even after he left the bookshop. Mainly because of what he heard of the content. It's not something you should be reading in public and he still had a train ride and short walk to go. He just thanked his lucky stars that Takano didn't have the pleasure of accompanying him home tonight. Being neighbors, going a night without the two of them walking home together was uncommon, but there was times like tonight when Takano would dismiss him early while he attended last minute meetings.

His curiosity nagged him the entire trip home though. Have I ever been so anxious to try a book out like this before? He pondered to himself. The feeling was similar to someone who'd bought a racy book or magazine and tried to hide that fact from his parents or roommates. Even though at 25, this feeling would be pointless, he still couldn't shake the feeling he was about to engage in something naughty. He ran his hand through his mouse brown hair and took his shoes off at the genkan. Normally he'd be found flat on his face about this time here. But for some reason tonight he was oddly full of energy.

He proceeded to take out a bag of cookies and pour himself a glass of milk. Seems this was dinner tonight. Sitting down on his sofa (after clearing them of his clean clothes), he took out the Books Marimo plastic bag with his new prize inside. Title was: Never Getting Older Vol. 1 with his new coworker's name, Uehara Meiri, adorning the front cover at the bottom. This ran for 3 years with it's last volume released just a few weeks ago. There were even some stickers pasted on the cover boasting Yaoi/BL of the year, Editor's choice, etc. He could understand how Meiri would be nervous about being able to put out another story that could top this one with all its notoriety.

Removing the obi, he began to read it. The tale was about two young men going to an all boys academy. Seemed rather cliché at first. Both boys had come from well-to-do families and such. The supposed seme was more a class clown that loved to pick on who appeared was going to be the uke. Going a little further realized the more feminine character was actually in love with his bully. He quirked a brow at the situation he was reading before him, Who'd fall in love with that jerk?

The next chapter would reveal why he's falling in love with him. Seems seme didn't always used to be like that. Also seemed this 'bully' really only gave so much attention to him because he was trying to deny his feelings for the uke, which led to his lashing out at him. But the uke saw right through him. Now it seemed they were in the library where all the barriers were finally broken; the uke, being pent up with such emotion, blurted out that he loved him trying to get the seme to acknowledge his feelings as well.

Wait a minute...Why do I get a sudden sense of deja vu? Onodera had this sinking feeling in his stomach. But decided to press on anyway. The last chapter of Vol. 1 was the one that made him light up like a red traffic light. Th...they're gonna...do it in the library? This was bringing back some rather daunting memories that settled in the far recesses of his mind until now. IS THIS A THING FOR STUDENTS TO DO?! LIKE A FANTASY OF SOME SORT?!

Of course referring to his own encounter in the library all those years ago. The parallels were uncanny. But now Onodera was getting a sense of what the other was thinking when they decided to consummate in the library. A feeling like, they couldn't hold their raw passion in anymore and he desperately needed the uke's comfort right then and there.

"She writes a desire that builds up to such a hot intimacy that means everything and not just lust...Sex that speaks of love, longing, and trust as if it were the greatest blessing between a couple," Kisa's words from the beginning of the month came back to him then.

"Could...could that have been...what Takano-san was thinking back then?" No...this was just in manga...right?

His heart then began to pound. It pumped so hard he could hear it in his ears. It was his own misunderstanding of Takano's true feelings that broke them apart ten years ago. He honestly didn't know how Takano felt, but now by just reading his coworker's most honored work, he sees into what Takano must've really been feeling back then. Granted their situations were much different, but it still drove the point all the way home.

He continued reading through this sex scene. A scene so full of passion through which it was brilliantly...drawn. Onodera could feel heat rising to his face and lightning surge down to his hips. He saw the seme pleasure his uke in such a manner that his own body began to burn. He reached a scene where the seme tweaked uke's nipples and Onodera could vividly picture the many times Takano did the very same for him. The places Takano touched him burned with even MORE fervor now. Seeing it clearly illustrated and spelled out for him like this made him resonate with the uke. Even down to the blush and losing all senses including common. Almost as if he could literally see himself in that manga.

Uh oh...this is bad... Onodera's heart couldn't stop its racing and pounding. It wasn't long before he realized just how excited he was. The vivid images were stained in his head and they began to go wild. "...I ...I should stop now," he said as he closed the book marking his place with a book marker. He was actually almost done with the first volume anyway. He couldn't understand it, but raw feelings were bubbling up in him after being dormant for a long time and this little first time manga editor was getting more than he bargained for. "Gah, enough...I'm going to bed..." he tried to shove everything back into the recesses of his brain.

It was only when he stood up did he remember there was a part of his body that was craving attention at the moment. "Great...," Onodera said bringing his hand down, shifting to make it more comfortable. A cold shower seemed far too painful to bear at this point. He then blushed at the only other option.

Onodera could hear his heart more clearly as he went to his bedroom drawer to acquire a bottle of lube. He'd never admit in a million years that he kept it there in the case that Takano decided to force his way into his home again. Peeling off his shirt and pants, his mind raced as he was reminded that it's been such a long time since he's done this by himself. His member sprang forth eagerly as he released it from its cotton confines. Taking the lube and warming it in his hands, he began to set to work rubbing out his little 'problem'.

The vivid imagery crowded his mind again. His head started to feel fuzzy. He was even being stubborn in trying NOT to think of Takano...but who else was he going to think about? It just wouldn't work any other way! It wasn't long before he gave up trying to fight it and Onodera's bedroom was now being filled with his sounds of ecstasy as he pumped. Small moans escaped him as now he couldn't do anything but think strictly of Takano and their time in the library. Then the image would shift to a memory of ten years later being sucked off in his own genkan...then making love in Takano's car. All these memories he tried to shove away as being bad and trying to forget them. But it felt too good to ever forget them right now. Not that he'd ever admit that of course.

"A-ah...Takano-san! Nnn!" he cried as he released.

/(^x^)\

Takano sighed heavily as he finally made it to the final steps leading to his apartment. He stepped into his door and put down his bag. He actually had something he had to tell his neighbor...even though said news could wait til morning. But this was Takano and he liked to have any excuse to bug Onodera. I'll just ring his bell once just to see if he's still awake, if he doesn't answer I'll leave him be...

With that he strolled down the hall to 1202. Before even touching the doorbell, he heard a yell come from within. "Onodera?" this made his heart jump and he hit the doorbell actually starting to gain concern. He then heard movement in the form of rushing about. "?"

When Onodera answered his door, he seemed out of breath. "I...I was just seeing if you were still awake," Takano clamored for his loss of words. "Are you okay?"

"Oh...um yes..." Onodera responded with what looked like a nervous look on his face.

"Are you sure? Your shirt is inside out...as well as backwards," come to think of it. It looked like he'd hastily thrown some clothes on from Takano's point of view. His pants were even undone.

"Eh? ...Ah!" Onodera shot as he looked down. "I...I was in the bath!"

"Liar, your hair is still oily. And you're not exactly wet..."

"Erm..um.." normally Onodera could respond with a snarky remark and try to tell him off. But he...just couldn't find it in him at the moment. Instead he gave a look that was reminiscent of the young, nervous, kawaii little bean that Takano once knew.

"Are you sure you're okay? I thought I heard you yelling..." Takano asked a bit more perturbed at this point. Why does he look so nervous? He's only talking to me... It was then all pieces were coming together. Unbuttoned pants, clothes look thrown on, face flushed, and that all knowing expression that exposed his true feelings for him. Takano closed the space between them putting an arm over Onodera's head against the wall.

"Oi, what were you doing without me?" Takano said in a sultry voice bringing Onodera's hand up to his nose as if to kiss it. This allowed him to catch a whiff of Onodera's essence and lube still lingering on his hand. "Mmm you were thinking of me, weren't you?" Takano said feeling the fire in his own loins.

Onodera had lost the will to fight him back in his own bedroom. He was swept away by his own damning thoughts of Takano. Before he knew it, Onodera was in Takano's bed having his body tenderly lavished by the man in his fantasies.

"Hm? Ah...hhhh…" What did that manga do to me?! I can't fight him! Not that he ever could fight him. The only difference was he had a head start this time.

"I should've gotten off early with you. If only I knew you needed me this badly," Takano's baritone voice purred into his uke's neck helping him back out of his clothes. Kisses going to suckling and back making Onodera tremble with pleasure.

Onodera may have had a head start, but just picturing his little subordinate pleasuring himself was sending Takano to meet him halfway. "You'd have to let me watch one of these days…"

"Sh….shut up…" was all the little blushing tsundere could muster up.

Author Remarks

I think I might be having too much fun here XDD Poor Ricchan! Though I've always wondered what would've happened if they all actually tried a Yaoi just like Nakamura-sensei's herself, don't you? But I suppose that'd be too easy and would probably cause an early end to the story ^^;; Next target might just be Takano! Let's see how many curious kitties I could make out of them! Stay tuned!