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tsukiyadori · 1 year ago

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Reading (+Watching+Listening) Log 2024.06 - June

Previous: Reading Log 2024.05 - May

Pouty pout. (A tier.)

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Reading languages: German, English, French, Japanese, not listing which was what. (There’s also been some feeble attempts at Chinese, but that was more on music.)

Titles are as I’ve read them either first or most and thus remember it for that title mostly

Not going to bother putting in the original titles of translated reads unless there is something worthy of note to it

Cursive titles have been completed

If it says a volume number, it may mean it has been finished or is still in progress

Some notes’ content may be subject to repetition here and there, as I also copied some older notes from casual conversations over and didn’t go through any rounds of cutting things down.

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JUNE

I kinda feel out from reading stuff on the apps daily

and keeping up online serialized chapter releases has been a mess, too...

Maybe I need to do statistics on the JNC slices of the monthly readings, I definitely keep busy chasing deadlines and then not manage to read it all anyway.

No An Archdemon's Dilemma: How to Love Your Elf Bride has been read this month, but due to cascading little incidents at a certain place Chastille has kind of become my alter ego and… I have not much to argue against it…

In terms of single franchise, this month's probably mostly dominated by Spice and Wolf/Wolf and Parchment.

Also decided to add a bit of a music section, considering how much time I was busy chasing lyrics and trying to read those (This will get some overlap with the months prior.)

There's been one single anime entry this time, and it's just a KyoAni ad...

I also kind of fell of from the Comikey and Manga Up readings....

Something else of a major time sucker activity started this month, which is the ominous ((classified)), but that'll probably take until the end of the year to unclassify.

Anime:

ショート版【京都アニメーション ×「紫式部ゆかりのまち宇治」PR動画】「うじには物語がある」

Light Novels/Web Novels/Novels:

Brunhild v3p2 Chillin’ in Another World with Level 2 Super Cheat Powers v1p1-5(ch2 finished) Fushi no Kami v1 Goodbye, Overtime! This Reincarnated Villainess Is Living for Her New Big Brother (Light Novel) v1 How to Survive as a Villain Novel ch236 Spice & Wolf v23-24 The Apothecary Witch Turned Divorce Agent v1p1-v2p8 The Disowned Queen’s Consulting Detective Agency v1 Wolf and Parchment v6-v8 ((classified))

Manga:

8th Loop for the Win! With Seven Lives’ Worth of XP and the Third Princess’s Appraisal Skill, My Behemoth and I Are Unstoppable! (Manga) ch11 A Livid Lady's Guide to Getting Even: How I Crushed My Homeland with My Mighty Grimoires (Manga) v2ch7-12 All you want, whenever you want Ano Natsu ga Houwa suru. ch18 Anti Alpha Buta no Liver wa Kanetsushiro v2ch6-11, ch36.3-4 Cooking With Wild Game (Manga) v9ch44-48 Dahlia lässt den Kopf nicht hängen v1 Daijuukou to Unicornis no Otome ch16.1 Dead Mount Death Play v7 Domestic na Kanojo v12-13 Duchess in the Attic (Manga) ch1, v2ch7-12, ch13-14 Goodbye, Overtime! This Reincarnated Villainess Is Living for Her New Big Brother (Manga) v1 Harebare Biyori ch24 I'm a Noble on the Brink of Ruin, So I Might as Well Try Mastering Magic (Manga) v1ch6 Isekai de Ane ni Namae wo Ubawaremashita ch19.1, ch20.1 Kakan no Oukoku no Hanagirai Hime ch13.4-14(finale) Knitter's High ch28.1-3 Küsse & Schüsse v1-2 Mr. Mallow Blue ch30 My Daughter Left the Nest and Returned an S-Rank Adventurer (Manga) ch1, ch6, ch11, v4ch16-20 Only I Know that This World Is a Game ch1, ch6, ch11, v4ch16-19 Rebuild World (Manga) ch1, ch5, v8ch35-39 Sakura, Saku v4 Shuumatsu Touring ch38.4 The 6th Loop: I'm Finally Free of Auto Mode in this Otome Game ch11.1-2 The Eternal Fool's Words of Wisdom: A Pawsitively Fantastic Adventure (Manga) v1ch1-6 The Frontier Lord Begins with Zero Subjects (Manga) ch1, v4ch16-20 The Magic in this Other World is Too Far Behind! (Manga) v1-v10ch50 The Unwanted Undead Adventurer (Manga) v11ch49-53 Unnamed Memory ch37.2 Watashi wo Tabetai, Hitodenashi Watatabe3

Webtoons:

The Silent Concubine ch33-122 Silent Lover (Silent Concubine alt. Counting) ch142-192(S2ch1-50) Taberare Usa ch106-109 To be or not be ch102

Music:

Just a selection of those that left the most impression, had me check out its lyrics and/or popped up high in the replay count.

雨霖铃 (Bells Ringing in the Rain) by 喵☆酱 (Miao Jiang)

笼中雀 (Caged Bird) by 喵☆酱 (Miao Jiang)

鴻音 (Resonant Sounds) by Sa Dingding

浮光 (Floating Lights) by Zhou Shen (周深), Jannik and some endless amounts of cover versions

The Blue Whisper OST - 鮫人之歌 (電視劇《與君初相識》片尾曲) by Zhou Shen

The Blue Whisper OST -魚躍而上 (電視劇《與君初相識》自由主題曲) by Sa Dingding/Mao Buyi

Solo Leveling OST - aikari

Notes:

How to Survive as a Villain Novel ch236 - After dragging it for weeks on end I finally finished reading the last chapter… that I had read before though gap jumping anyway. It's been a while where I simultaneously had an urge to read on asap while also not wanting to finish it at all. Anyway, some when next month or after that official Singapore English edition is coming, very curious how that translation will look like without any so many annotations.

Wolf and Parchment v6-v8: Volume 6 seems them with their newfound 'official relationship' that bubbles in and out and is perfectly tailored to them, especially Myuri. Hyland's being a complete fangirl of it is a nice touch, otherwise the whole case was interesting mystery and likely that cat is the same as from S&W is it? Some more real life history modelled things also got added, but the twist with the bears is interesting. The author speaks of three pillars he has to juggle, that of the overarching world lore, the characters and the plot of the current volume, while S&W he had pulled the former into a backseat. That also very much explains, why I had so many starting troubles with this one. The World Lore takes a good 4 vols to build up to have their first payoffs to feed back into the plot, and frankly the two characters only got more interesting from v5 onwards. Too bad I paused this for years after v4, which I remember to be more of a slog than not. Interestingly, that was also the volume the author had struggled a lot with, apparently. Volume 7: This volume starts with a really really cool passage from the conversation between Col and Clark:

Now, doesn't that kinda sound familiar. Espcially that last line nails it rather well.

This is kind of awesome. Not your usual bog-standard love bla bla is what changes the world, but this something that can't be named, this siblings like family, but that doesn't hit it, it's also not lovers, and whatever it is called, in the end one can only default to it as the umbrella term, but it is NOT what you'd usually think about it. The series definitely places a lot of importance to this something and this volume is so far the epitome with realizations sinking in just how important it is to them and then it culminates in the epilogue with Col being like, he's not planning to marry her, but he wants her by her side regardless. And he wants to make sure of it. In a form of equal side by sides, so if he's the Twilight Cardinal now, there he goes and makes it so, that she's going to be celebrated as a saint by his side. And it's all so cleverly weaved into the plot at hand about the wanting to be heroes, the inability to do so, but still wanting to dream about it in stories, and also the pieces fall into place for S&W's timeline as well. And it's not like it's denying your usual idea of relationship and under that world – after all, Holo and Lawrence are right there in their own series holding a spotlight and Col got his faith out of their love rather than anything else. Volume 8 however… seems a bit on the nose starting with the red string on the cover and the plot line in this volume unfortunately is a bit… well, the world is interesting, Canaan is a bundle of charm to bustle everything up and the wrap up to have the new continent plot line in is neatly resolved, but the sheer amount of folly in there…. Myuri, what are you doing? After everything last volume, you go and be all worried? Why the hell are you? Col at least even points out at just how OOC it all is for her.

Spice & Wolf v23-24: Speaking of those two's series, their antics… actually do start to get a little bit old. I dunno, maybe it's because it was getting slightly repetitive? like v24 is definitely a good plot, but the plotline twist is essentially the same as that previous short story about the regional lord that doesn't want to fell the forest, but is stuck between and rock and a hard place. Otherwise… Now that W&P has given a glimpse of how cool the overarching world lore can be S&W is starting to feel just a little pale in comparison. But as a companion it's really nice, how it picks up the pebbled behind Col and Myuri. It's just you really notice that by now Spring Log has a clear side story character to it. Also, I've had these weird impressions for a while now, but Eve and that Umbrella girl kinda smell a bit GL-ish and I do wonder if there's gonna be some plot around the desert after all. (Even if W&P v8 tries hard to deny it.)

The Apothecary Witch Turned Divorce Agent v1p1-v2p8: This has been pretty funny, and her groaning about failures in basically Anti-Cheese-Work, but also, she can't begrudge the happy ends for the couples where a thing I could feel so much, there is one obvious question to, how come people haven't come to her yet in hopes of the opposite, like they all seem to seriously want the break-up rather than her shaking things up to actually fix it.

((classified)) v1 first third: Well, not much that I can say as of yet, beyond: This MC gives me quite a few aroace vibes going by some thoughts and comments here and there, and I am going to be very curious how this is gonna play out. I expect it's going to be more of a late bloomer thing and the whole series is to be very very slow burn in that regard, with many other things on the forefront. But let's see.

Domestic na Kanojo v12-13: The whatever it is continues, and it seems to have reaches some lulls, which are mostly bolstered up by pouts from Miss little sister. Otherwise, Mr. Wannabe English guy remains punch worthy. What do you mean you'd not make her cry, as opposed to Natsuo? You merely tried to rape her, sure, you'd never make her cry. =V Miss twin tails also is like… sad to see. Where did your self dignity go?

Duchess in the Attic (Manga) ch1, v2ch7-12, ch13-14: We have another badass strong female MC, my ears are all perked! I mean, just look at this glare of dignity!

Now the LN just has to come. (Spoiler: it got licensed right the month after early July by the time I am writing this up.)

Sakura, Saku v4: It feels a bit like it tried to do a Kieta Hatsukoi and I will say it did it well enough. It also has a wholesome message and all, but somehow, I dunno. It's not bad, it plays the surprise out well, too, and it's in character of the cast, but it just seems a bit. Not having a charm of its own about it. I dunno. The whole series is down to earth 'normal' sorts of, but compared to the aforementioned KieHatsu, it had more individualistic 'character' or so about it. Not sure how to phrase it.

The Silent Concubine ch33-122: Erm. Ok. What. Was. That. I maintain the beginning as written up last month is still so, and it's rather nice to have this uke fate doomed Shen Yu have his own agency and even using the help of the emperor who got smitten with him, while he is now quite the rationalist to know first come gains. Ok. He was described as bewitchingly beautiful, so people arguing over him isn't maybe that out of place. The whole background story about his lineage and the extra finger knuckle was either lacking in exposition to begin with or the translation has missed out something? It kinda came half out of nowhere. That Shen Yu seems fed up enough to go for suicide knowing how anyone else is just this more powerful than him, him still being poisoned, and his mother is gone anyway, also makes sense. But like, you make him the descendant of a line of former royals that doomed themselves for inbreeding and incest which would even give a reason for his disability also seems plausible. But then, oh, it's psychological and oh, not only does he survive his suicide attempt, but his chronic poisoning is gone, and suddenly he's also not mute anymore. And it kind of completely topples the power dynamic over. And then goes that Chu clan and, uh, Mister new Emperor just goes to be his bodyguard somewhere hidden who knows where. Man's got some priorities, despite knowing the instable the state of things are. And then, right, he's gonna be the only one he marries. How to solve this? Oh, hey look, that ancient clever Chu clan has developed a concoction of a birthing potion (that only works on the clan). And then it still works when it's not both of them of the clan, well, way to how he has to remain the uke. And then there's his blood relative of a from around a few corners who wants to woo him, too. (Tho more for form's sake.) Erm. Okay. I guess. Something Omega in Ancient China. And then suddenly there is a side dish romance that seems to have completely bubbled in the background only to come and be all like oh well, they knew themselves from childhood and. Whatever. It just feels rather contrived a lot of times in the second half.

Silent Lover (Silent Concubine) S2 alt. Counting ch142-192(S2ch1-50): So, morbid curiosity brought me to season 2, and it's a sequel with the next generation, the son of the Main couple of S1 and the adopted son of the side dish couple. I have to say, I am almost amazed at how completely brazenly it goes and rehashes S1's plot line. With not much sense at places. So there's another arranged marriage, but like his adopted father is the right hand of the emperor and they are on good terms, his other father (who kind of never showed up, is he dead?) used to be a good friend of that emperor's spouse that is the other MC's birthing parent. That and that he is a brilliant scholar of his own with status and family pedigree should give him the means to stand his ground. Doesn't seem to matter. Well, maybe he is just timid. But somehow despite the series even having the galls to joke about how the MC's parent's tale is a cautionary tale and them knowing that their son is a bundle of a folly, nobody ever shows him the ropes properly. So he's just being all abusive again. There is another rival for the MC who is all super mean and anything, but just winds up dead along the way. Instead of poisoning, MC winds up suddenly having an oh so very dangerous blood illness on top of his weak disposition. Oh hey, turns out he's actually of the lineage of the previous emperor. Oh, also, he's been super in love with his abusive arranged marriage partner until there was too much abuse for him to call it quits. Also gets tortured and his hand crushed and disabled. Gets wooed by the prince of a foreign land. Oh, and there's a murder attempt to the emperor, how come S1's MC suddenly has vanished completely after showing up just a bit to be all pouty and everything? And isn't the prince the Chu clan bloodline descendant and crown prince, like probably that birthing potion would work on him, too, but of course as a clone of his emperor father he's gotta be the seme character yet again. - ????

Well, as I got so little read this month some music babbling 雨霖铃 (Bells Ringing in the Rain) by 喵☆酱 (Miao Jiang): It started with that little chapter title from How to Survive as a Villain that is quoting a line of a poem by Liu Yong (984-1053 AD). 今宵酒醒何处？ "Where will I be, when I wake from my drunken stupor at dawn?" That poem has by now grown on me. Technically, apparently the inspiration was the author having to have to leave his lover, but the text itself is on a more abstract level of simply a separation to foreign lands. Googling that led me to the first result that is a youtube song with a dance and a cover of it, that is from the soundtrack of a game named 逆水寒 (nisuihan, "cold against the current"), which for whatever reason is called "Justice Online" in English. (How'd you get from one name to the other??) Not that I noticed that at first, both song videos are incredibly traditional styled and the dance by Tang Shiyi is definitely quite pretty. (And I mean, the video is from the CHINA NATIONAL OPERA AND DANCE THEATER??) It took me a deal of digging until I even found the singer's name, which had me go ????, because, it basically means Meow ☆ Sauce. That so far was still in April, but the song rather stuck and then there was also this other song from the artist and yet another song to that same game I came to kinda like.

鴻音 (Resonant Sounds) by Sa Dingding - that popped out in the playlist of the channel, and there's another dance by Tang Shiyi also to a song of the Nishuihan game. No poem, but it kinda sounds the epic tune style. And the dance video is also something. (The match cuts in particular left an impression.)

笼中雀 (Caged Bird) by 喵☆酱 (Miao Jiang) - No poem again, but the mood reminds me of Bells ringing in the rain. The lyrics of this and Resonant Sounds do sound a bit cheese, while Bells could arguably be about any sort of seperation. By here this had reached May and I was getting into that whole soundtrack of that game, which by all means has a good few of nice tracks. And while I was at that, I found this.

浮光 (Floating Lights) by Zhou Shen (周深), Jannik the original intrumental version and some endless amounts of cover versions both vocal and intrumental and dance videos - Apparantely the nishuihan game has some sorta feature where you get to replay some tunes or something? And this song was one of it? Or I don't know. In any case in some playlist the instrumental song by Jannik sat on top as the first track and it immediately struck a chord. The name is suspiciously Western tho (going by the discography they're probably even German??), but googling that you get a Chinese Baidu Baike Wiki page, which then talks about the vocal version by Zhou Shen, which struck even a bigger chord. That had me look up the lyrics and since Zhou Shen is a rather famous artist, it has some lyrics translation videos. Except.

So nostalgia and doubts are kinda the same thing, aha.

Or how about we just leave the word out completely?

This is what the dictionary has to say about the word btw.:

This sounds like a sort of saudade x nostalgia x hiraeth x natsukashii with touches and yet it's own thing, as baike explains it as "the unwillingness/reluctance to leave something or to let it go" as its first meaning and the second being "cherished memories (怀念) directed towards passed days" (which kinda sounds more natsukashii than nostalgia). And that is incredily interesting, but I am bewildered how this turned into 'doubts' of all things? By now it was end of May and now plans to study Chinese are plainly up on the table again. I just don't yet now how to best go about it.

For the time being… The Blue Whisper OST - 鮫人之歌 (電視劇《與君初相識》片尾曲) by Zhou Shen The Blue Whisper OST -魚躍而上 (電視劇《與君初相識》自由主題曲) by Sa Dingding/Mao Buyi June was loop the above and starting to go through a whole bunch of Chinese music (well mostly nishuihan and Zhou Shen) and this one's lyrics caught me again. Like 魚躍而上 starts with something like "Every pair of eyes is fish". Me: ????? Maybe I need to watch that The Blue Whisper drama to get it, but then it also looks incredibly cheese everything and… Also, do you know the agony of you kinda liked a song just by its song and then it just turns out to be all cheese lyrics once you look them up?? It kinda felt like a curse. =V

一梦惊鸿 by 黄诗扶 (Huang Shifu): There was also this one, which popped through the recommendations box and picked my eyes through a really nice dance video.

Solo Leveling OST - aikari: I'm not exactly sure why peculiarly this one picked my ears, haven't even watched the anime, but it was strangely loop-able.