#i've also read stuff that's not available in english and doesn't have print editions

[duckprintspress]

Took some pictures of my danmei collection to share on Xiaohongshu.

This is everything I've read - the ones in Chinese, I've read the English translation of all of them (they're all manhua), except for the Little Mushroom manhua, which I've only read in Chinese. Full list:

The Husky and His White Cat Shizun

The Graverobber's Chronicles (not danmei)

Golden Terrace

Salad Days

In the Dark

Guardian

Peach Blossom Debt

The Imperial Uncle

Dinghai Fusheng Records (manhua)

Silent Hearts

I Ship My Rival x Me (manhua)

Grandmaster of Demonic Cultivation (manhua)

Here U Are (manhua)

Nirvana in Fire (manhua) (not danmei)

Chinese manhua editions of Po Yun, Global Examination, Tian Guan Ci Fu, Little Mushroom, Copper Coins, AMW: PUBG, and Legend of Exorcism

Limerance

The Disabled Tyrant's Beloved Pet Fish

How to Survive as a Villain

Rose and Renaissance

Heaven Official's Blessing

Scum Villain's Self-Saving System

Grandmaster of Demonic Cultivation

Thousand Autumns

Not pictured: Little Mushroom (the only print edition I've read that isn't here, I loaned it to a friend)

These are the ones I'll be reading next, in the order I'll be reading them.

Stars of Chaos/Sha Po Lang

You're Too OP

The Missing Piece

Dawning

Lip and Sword

Soul Vibration

And these, I won't read until I have all the volumes in English

Run Wild/Saye

To Rule in a Turbulent World

Peerless

Case File Compendium

Remnants of Filth

Nanchan

Kaleidoscope of Death

Everyone Loves the Canon Fodder

Don't You Like Me?

Coins of Destiny

Qiang Jin Jiu/Ballad of Sword and Wine

As far as I know, this is every danmei book from China currently available in print and in English (and some out of print), hell knows I've tried to track them all down. I've also got everything else I know of pre-ordered (thank you, holiday + birthday money).

I'm not reading You've Got Mail because 1. I've heard negative things about the author and 2. it's not from China and I've decided to focus there.

God, so many books. I don't even know where to keep them all lmao.

[kricepudding]

Talking about Chibita-Kun (1969 version)

So, over a year ago now I managed to pick up two relatively good condition copies of the second publishing of the Chibita-Kun manga, serialised in the mid 1960s. Only posting about them now as I had to keep them in quarantine for a year due to possible mold (luckily this was not the case). Not a lot of people ever post about this in the English speaking fandom so I thought it would be fun to show some stuff you may not have seen. The manga was republished as ebooks in 2009, however some chapters are missing considering they were repurposed back into Kantaro chapters, but that's a deep dive we can save for another day.

I will preface that due to when this was published there are depictions of racial minorities that I strongly disagree with, and this should be kept in mind if anyone goes out seeking to read copies online.

I'm putting everything under a read more because this is going to be a massive post lol. Alt text is in the images but if you use a screen reader and are unable to hear it let me know and I'll edit the post. Honestly, I just love nerding out about old things (also, for the book collectors out there, I know you're not meant to wear gloves but I have OCD so the gloves are staying on lol. I'm not ruling out potential lead exposure).

For starters, here are the covers. I specifically searched for these editions of the manga because the covers are full of so much life in comparison to other versions. The colour combination is perfect and super eye catching. I'm aware bonus chapters from a different manga are included in the editions published in the 1970s, but I wanted to get these ones first. I might also pick up the manga where the bonus chapters come from on it's own anyway, but it's pricy.

Volume 2, unbeknownst to me at the time I purchased it, is actually a first edition. You can tell it's older considering it's in much poorer condition in comparison. It has significant foxing on the cover pages, the edges, and damage to the dust cover, with a group of pages that are detached from the rest. While I don’t think anything is missing, I need to glue those back into place before I display it. There is also some dirt at the bottom. Thankfully it doesn't seem to be water damaged and the book doesn't smell at all.

On the other hand, volume 1 doesn't look its age. I'll be displaying that in a glass cabinet with no other protection. If I were to guess, it was likely printed in the early to mid 70s instead of 1969. I'm unsure if it's even been used.

And here are the frontispieces. A frontispiece is basically a decorative illustration appearing on one of the first pages of a book. Interestingly, my volume 2 has a printing error. Whether this is because it's a first edition or not, if you look closely the yellow is ever so slightly out of line with everything else. This doesn't seem to be present in other copies of the book I've found online. There's also another printing error on one of the first couple of pages, where the panels are slightly faded and hard to read.

There's something just so charming about Akatsuka's painting style, it's so homely and comforting. If I was a child I'd be drawn to them.

Due to my lack of knowledge regarding Kantaro as the information isn't widely available in English, I've only been able to find one chapter that was definitely originally one of his, due to the cover image being identical to one used in the past in a Kantaro book. By this point he’d already adopted Chibita’s look, so the changes are minimal. Interestingly Chibita originally looked like Kantaro and was called "Kan" in a very small number of chapters in early printings of Osomatsu-Kun, but as he became the more popular character Kantaro's design was changed to match and the name in Osomatsu-Kun changed to his own.

Moving on, here is the damage I mentioned to volume 2. I like to think that the kid who originally owned this book found the image of Chibita getting hanged so compelling they had to show everyone, and as a result wore away the binding.

Something incredibly interesting I also observed is I think the explorers skit in Osomatsu San (you know, the one with Iyami, Jyushi, and Hatabou) might have been based on a Chibita-Kun chapter! The story involves a group of three explorers: Chibita, Iyami, and an unknown female character, doing similar stuff to the group in -San. I would need to rewatch the skit to see if the events align with those in the chapter, but it feels similar from what I've observed. While the combination they used in Osomatsu-San was fitting and I see why they would have changed it, I have feelings about Chibita's lack of use in Osomatsu-San and this feeds into the negative.

For now, I think this is a good place to leave it. I hope to go back and have a more in-depth look through at the stories themselves later down the line once I've repaired volume 2, but this is what I found from a first glance. All in all a really exciting purchase, probably my favourite thing in my entire collection.