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tsukiyadori · 4 months 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.

#reading #watching #listening #reading log #watching log #listening log #statistics #wolf and parchment #spice and wolf #classified #sakura saku #the silent concubine #duchess in the attic #bells ringing in the rain #nishuihan #zhou shen #sa dingging #the apothecary witch turned divorce agent #domestic girlfriend

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tsukiyadori · 8 months ago

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Reading (Watching) Log 2024.02-2024.03 - February-March

Previous: Reading Log 2023.12-2024.01 - December-January

Finding the good things be just like chasing after elusive bubbles and wondering how long they'll last

Reading languages: German, English, French, Japanese, not listing which was what

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

Tumblr's four thousand so and so max characters per block is annoying as hell

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FEBRUARY

JNC Nina licenses Unnamed Memory both in French in February and German in March. And so now I am reading it for a second and third time simultaneously and also got a subscription for it and then you gotta not waste the buffet, do you?

The reason I never subbed to the JNC English site was because I feared I'd never read my other backlog if I'd get roped into chasing expiry deadlines over all the time, so there was extra zeal on that too avoid the nightmare scenario.

And soooo the LN pile read off has had an increase not seen in years.

Light Novels:

Anime Supremacy

Bottom Tier Character Tomozaki LN 8.5-9

Hell Mode v1-2.7

I Met You After the End of the World v1-2

See You When the Snow Falls

Spice & Wolf v21

The Apothecary Diaries v1-2

The Eminence in Shadow v1

Unnamed Memory LN v1.p1

Manga:

100-nengo ni Tenseishita Watashi, Zense no Juukishi ni Kyuukonsaremashita: Heika wa Watashi ga Moto Oujo da to Okizukidenai you desu ch15.1-3

A Certain Scientific Accelerator v10-v12

A Certain Scientific Railgun v17-18

A Kingdom of Quartz ch1

A Side Character's Love Story ch35.2-50.1

After God ch53-54

Alabaster ch5.3-10.2

Ano Natsu ga Houwa suru. ch15-16.1

Beauty as the Beast ch36-49

Black Butler v31

Bloody Bites at Boarding School v1

Boku no Diamond Star final chapter

Bottom Tier Character Tomozaki Manga ch8-24.2

Buta no Liver wa Kanetsushiro ch33-34.4

Captain Ken ch1-7

Close to your Skin

Daijuukou to Unicornis no Otome ch14.1

Dance Dance Danseur v1-3 (JP v1-6)

Dekiru Neko wa Kyou mo Yuuutsu ch104

Der Geschmack nach Melone v1

Diamond in the Rough v1

Die Braut des Wasserdrachen v8-9 (out of order read)

Gebt mir mehr, bitte sehr v2

Geliebter Wetterfrosch v2ch6-11

Girl Crush ch62-63, ch81-82

Give Her Back to Me

Gleipnir v2-9, ch59-88

Haikyu v34-39

Harebare Biyori ch23.1

Hari to Hitsuji no Fune ch9.1-2

Higurashi no Naku Koro ni Meguri ch19.1-2

I have a Crush at Work ch1

I'm cute enough to get away with it ch20

Iki Dekinai no wa Kimi no Sei: Super Pink

In the Sunset ch0-12

Isekai de Ane ni Namae wo Ubawaremashita ch17.2-4

Kakan no Oukoku no Hanagirai Hime ch10-11.2

Kijima-san & Yamada-san ch1-6

Knitter's High ch25-26.2

Koisuru (Otome) no Tsukurikata ch79

Kono Koi wo Hoshi ni wa Negawanai ch11.1-2

Lust auf ein Date? v9-10

Miryou no Otome to Katabutsu Hittou Majutsushi no Hatsukoi Kiroku ch18.2-4

Mr. Villain's Day Off ch54-64

My Awkward Senpai ch1-37

Okaeri Aureole

Okazari Ouhi ni Nattanode, Kossori Hataraki ni deru koto ni Shimashita ~Usagi ga Iru node Hitorine mo Sabishiku Arimasen!~ ch23.2-3

Oshi no Ko ch139

Our Dedication

Porno Superstar

Porträt eines Vampirs v2

Ran the Peerless Beauty v4

Reincarnated as the Daughter of the Legendary Hero and the Queen of Spirits ch19.4-58

Rental Girlfriend v19

Requiem Of The Rose King v9-10

Resist Destiny v3ch10-15

Ride-On King v3

Sakura, Saku v3ch11

Sasaki and Miyano v7

She is also cute today ch52-75

Shinde Miro to Iwareta no de Shinimashita. ch9-10

Shuumatsu Touring ch35

Sky Link v1

Snow Fairy v1

Snowball Earth v2-5

Solange wir zusammen sind v1

Sonna Kazoku nara Sutechaeba? ch64-66

Sooper Spooky ch1-4

Spice & Wolf - Die Abenteuer von Col und Miyuri v1-2

Suicide Notes Laid on the Table ch1-9

Sweet & Tart Boyfriend Ch39-53

Take Over Zone v1ch5

The Angel Next Door Spoils Me Rotten ch13.3-14.1

The Diamond of Heart v3ch11-15

The Heroic Legend of Arslan v12ch71-76

The Ice Guy and the Cool Girl ch16-38

The Killer Inside v1-6, ch53-97

The Villainess's Guide to (Not) Falling in Love ch12.2-15.1

To be Winner ch76-114

Together Forever ch36.2-42.2

Tomorrow, make me yours

Unnamed Memory Manga ch34.1

Watashi wo Tabetai, Hitodenashi ch35.1-36.1

Zombie 100 v10ch38

Webtoons:

Breed my Dear Enemy ch92-110

Can the Grand Duke and the Marquis be Friends? ch13-32

Flowers in the Secret Place ch1-52

Ice Lamp: The Chronicles of Kira ch8-41

Marry my Enemy ch8-60.5

SOS My Love has a Bug ch0-3

Spirit of Peach Blossom ch49-80

Taberare Usa ch88-92

The Giantess wants Love ch96-170

The Mermaid Wears a Dress ch38-60

The Villainess Behind the Mask ch1-53

To be or not to be ch12-36

Non-Fiction:

Some Greek mythology book (ISBN 9789463598965)

Notes:

Bottom Tier Character Tomozaki LN 8.5-9 Wow. Wow. So I thought volume 8 was kinda really not too great for me, but ultimately that (and v8.5) are built up to volume 9, and ho boy was this a surprise. It even starts right off with doing the right thing about dating - talking it out - then root issues and problems are being pointed out and then there is also still the Popol and the Fireling analogy going on. And Kikuchi's then even in world essentially totally realizing that she is effectively up against narrative fate. And then there is Hinami. And it's not like Tomozaki has a crush on her, like he does with Kikuchi. While he can perfectly be attracted to her, it's not like he has all the crushy feels he has for Kikuchi. But that bond is there. And it's so paramount, most important he's ready to let go from Kikuchi, when it looks like he can't have both without some sort of suffering happening somewhere. At this point I steadfastly declare this series as being pretty much queer. I thought this before already, that Tomozaki isn't really all that straight, like he is easily attracted to a lot of the girls, but also he's got the heart flutter moment with Misuzawa already and just generally looks up at him copying it. If this had wanted to take a BL turn, this wouldn't really have come out of nowhere either. While this potential route probably is not ever going to be explored, what he has there with Hinami just screams queerplatonic to me. They have all the issues of naming and describing it, the next best thing they can tangibly go for is, she is his mentor in the game of life. But there is definitely more going on from both sides, and at least for Tomozaki it's overly clear how huge her existence is in his life. And he longs to keep it. But it's not the same thing he has with Kikuchi and what's more Kikuchi just.... gets it. And yes, it's a queasy and axiety inducing, but ultimately that ending being like all in the break up mood and she being like she's gotta make a decision herself, so asks him to let her make the request - how often do we get a girl finally stands up to make a decision for herself to end things? Not Kikuchi, she does the entire opposite. Rather than ending it, she reinforces that ending of v7, that this is a selfish wish, but she desires him. And it's not just her crush, it's because he also is her ideal Popol. Which he wouldn't be without Hinami being there as such a paramount existence. And it's just this whole great thing about that ultimately decisions and what one makes out of it is the most supreme thing of all. And what Kikuchi did is, she gave narrative fate a middle finger.

The thing with the badges is kinda a bit of sappy cheese, but it definitely feels well earned. And next to that, there is also this whole setting of boundaries with Hinami, too. When Tomozaki just goes and requests Hinami to shut up, when she is saying her logical, but not empathetic reasoning and he makes it clear, that this is not rejection, not rejecting her, not rejecting her values, but self-preservation, that he needs that distance to protect his emotions and to prevent himself for developing bad ones towards her. It's just so really beautifully respectful while drawing that important boundary. And he also follows up with that game meeting, just to prove, it wasn't just empty talk. He still fully intends to have her in his life. That makes it just buyable. And that also makes the ending clear, that he is upset with her for using him like that, but he does not even contradict her on her methods of working. He just doesn't agree with her attitude and motivation in this. And it's a clear telling off, but it also doesn't feel salty, because clearly after all this, he's not just going to let her walk out of his life AND IT'S NOT BECAUSE OF ANYTHING ROMANCE. (In a RomCom(Drama), set up a bit harem-like no less.)

You have all that talking with Mizuzawa about you can't have it all, things are spilling, you gotta at least be aware and deliberately toss something and usually this is where people go and pick Za most important loved one to become the OTP and what does this guy do? Starts ditching everything that by all means logic is transient and "replaceable" - until Mimimi makes it clear to any reader she is way too good to let go - is all ready to ditch his new self he has come to like himself, is ready to ultimately ditch the notorious supreme SO. breathes in ISN'T THIS OUTRAGEOUS??

Like completely outrageously rare. I did not expect this. I was all whining that I didn't want to see it end on Tomozaki and Hinami winding up the OTP simply by virtue of the narrative fate of first girl to show up, and the Kikuchi just comes and trashes it down. This is great stuff. And then it is even more, it's talking about compatibility, it's talking unbalance, it's talking about how the solution ultimately was Kikuchi sucked it up, but it's not entirely one sided, either, as it also was her deliberate intentional steadfast choice to put an ideal over her anxious feelings. And it's just so neatly full circle to v7. And it also manages to level up Rena who really was slap worthy in v8. She really is in it to push the limits, but once Tomozaki clearly tells her off, she backs away. So all you have to be steadfast, for everything else, you only deserve to be her prey. That's an interesting one, too, especially considering, who she really comes off as somebody who doesn't respect any boundaries, but all it needed was steadfastness? And then her and Mr. Professional Player talk about relationships from an adult perspective, it being about setting boundaries for the partner meaning relationships and it's all really interesting and convincing for a healthy relationship and Tomozaki is pondering about it and it all looking like it completely falls apart, but then Kikuchi finds a different way that does away with the conflict. .... Isn't that kinda quintessentially queer(platonic)? To not be all following whichever norm was out there set by your predecessors. But not necessarily denying all and everything of it either. And then it ALSO brings in the subject of what loser or winner means in life and that line about how Tomozaki actually is a winner type - because he can recognize status and value, but it entirely not attached it so has no second qualms to just let go it, because he doesn't see it as something that propels himself forward - was really a thing to think about, while it finally tied the gamer aspect into it the rest. Tomozaki never had a need to validate himself, and it was actually something he's had from the beginning. But since he had such a self-sabotaging resigned attitude and approach it perverted it into merely being an arrogant loser. But turns out it actually was just lacking the toolset and guidance to make use of what he's always had. And really just the sheer miracle of meeting somebody, who is equipped with an eye to see that value and then confront and nourish it, even if it may be out of questionable motivations (but it's not like they are exactly harmful to him), it's just so so grand, and.... I think I'm rather jealous of it. Does this even happen in reality? This series makes it buyable that it may actually be possible.

Hell Mode v1-2.7 Here we go with a case of you just read it, because it was there. One of the few current titles on JNC Nina and it just felt like a waste to not make use of it. Turned out, it's not so bad, although it's nothing I'd ever actually pick up on my own. The steady leveling up and checking out stats and experimenting with it is quite like By the Grace of Gods, just without any of it's healing compf properties. The protagonist kinda reminds of the one from Gamers!, just in less of a pathetic loose-type. Maybe that makes him more like the protagonist of Shangri-La Frontier, but in terms of personality he's a bit off. But it takes its very decent solid time to establish actual stakes, the one major thing that made Shangri-La entirely not work for me. The MC even mentions it himself, it's a whole pain to have been reborn and spending all these years, but though it he has a bond with them (which kinda is like Ascendance of a Bookworm, now that I think about it), and these are his stakes. He doesn't just do things because of his gaming obsession, but also because he wants/needs his family to get into better conditions. Not a bad read, it solidly does what it sets out to do so far.

See You When the Snow Falls Uh, hmmmmm. This tried to jug multiple genres and then none of them were exactly terrible, but somehow though the split none of them managed to shine. The split was actually fairly even, too. The mystery bit turns out to be an actual murder mystery, and it was even guessable to the reader, but because it's always background focus it ends kinda anticlimatic, despite being fairly round. And to begin with, nothing about the premise (and the compf cover) looks like a murder mystery.

Cheese wise it was, err, uncommon, I guess? Meets the ghost, looks like a the fated person, meets another girl, also has an air of a fated person, actually starts dating somebody entirely else, and after some detour winds up with his future wife. Some lines really weren't bad, and there is some of the ugly side of relationships depicted quite down to earthly, but maybe it was just way too matter of factually reported, this hardly qualifies as romance as in the genre either. And as a coming of age drama of something who lacks any direction and purpose in life it's too entangled to those two subplots than to shine, he kinda gets dragged around by them and big dramatic moment happens and then just happens to do his thing, because why not.

It has a nice realistic sense to it at places, but somehow it's completely not what you'd think it'd be from the cover and blurb.

(Also has nothing to do with that other 2 volume series, which I only found out after finishing this one.)

As an oel otherwise it was a bit weird at places. Aside from "a kuro tech company" it uses words like chikan, keiko just like that in Japanese with italics and those are words that really need not have to be Japanese, next to some Nee sentence starts (why not simply "groping", "honorifics", "hey"?). Not too many lines, but they have a strange weeb show off effect. At some point it also has a bit of an air about flaunting knowledge of that culture, like how it comes around with explaining how onsen were used for talks because nude means you can't hide weapons. I'd guess this is an obvious snippet of knowledge to any native writer as I've never seen it show up explained anyway beyond No Game, No Life where it was just in a tirade to distract from the main topic and Zombie 100 where the weeb foreigner comes to flaunt her knowledge. 🤔

I Met You After the End of the World v1-2 And there I thought these were all the volumes of this series, but apparently there's gonna be a v3… I was surprised by this series. It was present already in See You When the Snow Falls, but it's clearer here. This writer's style has a distinctive male gaze, and it doesn't shy away from sexuality and being just a bit philosophical contemplating. This kinda reminds me a lot of Asano Inio or Haruki Murakami or Oshimi, but it's not like…. as wrecked. Not that it is to say that there isn’t lots and lots of doom material by premise and setting, as well as plenty of assholes, but the few that are there are kinda all side characters (who get their just desserts by plot). The MC is quite upstanding instead and treats the female MC very respectfully. And it starts off with a mood that comes to a close around a third to half line in the first volume. They are alone in a Tokyo, where everyone died of a virus. It takes months until the stink of the corpses emerges and then it needs the electricity network breaking down for them to properly have it sink in, that they were spending their whole time next to corpses en masse and now need to leave the place. I was thinking the reason why there was no stink was kinda hard to buy at first, but then it's maybe not entirely impossible either. And you'd think, why are they such idiots and didn't prepare stocking up on fuel before gas station electric pumps would fail, why not stock up on battery charge, but not look for this and that. Didn't they know this was gonna break down sooner or later? They even mentioned having feared it before. But it all seems so plausible with the mood. You have this guy, who just is totally burned out from life and was all ready to simply wait for his death by the virus and the girl has her own share of issues and they just are there enjoying the luxury of modern life without its responsibilities and artificial social pressures and they just spend their time to… heal. Did they know to be more clever in preparing more? Probably. Somewhere in the back of their heads. But they also looked to me entirely not being in the mental state of actually following up on it. And this is just the worst thing about extended periods of exhaust. You lose that onlook or care about even a mildly midterm future. Just floating in and out of the days. I didn't even know I'd find that mood interesting, but here were are.

After this it turns into a road trip and the obligatory romance was gonna progress, too. Heads up for a perspective of, the female character can get horny as well and that being solidified as something perfectly not shameful. (Even if the phrasing of “people have their needs” used to cement it is a clunky one that can go to hell.) And some meetings are almost always mystery cases, in between. (I find it rather funny that she'd carry that book about cults of all things all the way from Tokyo to the south, just to have it ready at the right time, lol.) All the hints of more survivors being there is a nice set up for potentially something grander and will be interesting how this is going to weave together with the romance between the two. It gives me slight Eden It's an Endless World vibes there. The end of the world, humanity and everything…. but look there, after a while you'll see humans still survive after all and you gotta see how to live in this world where some things just never change. Could imagine that coming in as a theme, too, but we're not there yet. The MC is already contemplating personal true value vs. artificial social value and the whole thing about it already was dead, but the tsunami comes and and sinks everything down and even the hubris is gone. There was just such a solemn mood about it, like all the things you hated, but you also realize you were attached to it nonetheless. And just how that hits down as a very lonely thing. Kinda reminded me when I heard that my old school was torn down and I looked up some pictures taken from the teardown side filled of rubble. AND THEN volume 2 comes in with…. a ghost and a deity. Huh???? Suddenly it's also Fantasy???? I have no idea where it is wanting to go. But not even a date for v3 yet…

The Apothecary Diaries v1-2 I have to say the beginning was a bit dry and if there was anything at all it was just the narrator’s cheeky tone going for me. It was like the narrator has a personality entirely of their own, while omnipotently knowing about everything past and future and present and sometimes doing a little commentary. (Unfortunately that one vanished quite soon enough.) It requires its time to set up all the characters and especially Maomao. I was expecting that it would just utilize the fact that she is just too into her special interest and doesn’t see anything else of the world trope to justify it until said interest would shift, but surprisingly she is not wholly obsessed about it for larger parts of the first volume at all. And her being so entirely in the know about the Red District certainly doesn’t make her the too innocent-trope. So when the narration goes to state she expressly has no interest, despite the ability to see the attraction by common standards my eartips perked up. This increased with all the weary moods over watching other people’s marriage going right or going wrong and there is just this whole mood of like Ah-Dou and the emperor not really being lovers but bosom friends and confidantes and her just being a strong support to him rather ever really be his concubine. Or Maomao and her adoptive father and just how remote romance and sexual indulgence can be from a home to get back to. At that point I thought that would have been interesting with Jinshi being an Eunuch and that being mentioned as 'losing sometime vital', something that isn’t at all so vital to Maomao herself. If Maomao was pretty much as good as ace, that could have made an interesting match, of one who is dumbly in love and the other entirely not, but slowly finding some intellectual and emotional ways to connect. Like she did with her entire found family. But duh, of course that couldn’t stay that way.

I raged at that v1 epilogue. WTH do you mean she got pink cheeks, blushing from a darn cheese move? At the end? This last minute?? It felt so entirely like, that v1 was set up to work standalone and then it’s just bait, like, imagine the rest of that ship on your own. Which felt entirely like betrayal to the set up of Maomao herself and also if that was where it was gonna go, then it was just half-baked. My best guess was that it was just being bait, and look there volume 2 just goes and essentially retconned it. And then adds a comment in that volume to have Maomao say it was she left everything love in the womb of her mother. Now that’s a really cool phrasing that I’m inclined to use for myself if a need may pop out. In any case, Maomao is such a mood (just replace poison with rabbits for me), her facial descriptions about Jinshin’s cheese advances or the deadpan expressions of exhaust, resignation to annoyance when others have gossips are so quintessentially me as a teenager and her aloofness about just really knowing a whole lot about worldly flesh matters (but all theoretical) and then being stared at is similar to my adult self now. I was surprised how quickly that escalated with everyone getting headaches and Jinshi even resorting to wall punching. What I found too bad about v2 is that ultimate her poison hobby obsession got played as the expected trope after all and then Jinshi just has to be the Ugly Duck (or more like the swan among ducks?) that he is and I was kinda disappointed that Maomao wound up being blood related to her adoptive father after all. Like it was really interesting how things interconnected with the mystery cases, but then it says that coincidences piling up like this suggest something intentional and things in her surroundings and family are also all too coincidentally also very connected and who’s the mastermind there? (It looks a bit like the former empress?) Anyhow. Volume 1 and 2’s mood and tone does feel considerably different at places, I’m not sure which one I actually like better. (What I think is also kind of funny is how it’s like a sort of reverse Jeweler Richard? Both guys are described has heavenly beautiful defying gender and having everyone turn their heads and the narrator and even Maomao can’t stop making mention of this, but Maomao and Seigi are at complete opposite extremes of reacting to it, and yet Jinshi is already like a v6 Richard and Maomao is like a mix of dofus Seigi and early volumes Richard?)

Later I found out that the shousetsu ni narou version was still up and it looks like v1's content is largely the same to the WN. So looking up the phrasing of that v1 epilogue it says utsuru for her thought esclamation that it's catching on to her and then she gets those pink cheeks. Now utsuru is a word descibing catching diseases other things contagious. Which is to say, this is reminicent of that explanation Oda does in One Piece about Ruffy having a reaction at nude Nami, simply because he is in a group and the group mentality caught on. I still entirely don't like that bit of the epilogue, but I suppose this makes it look a bit less disappointingly baity.

That and that the author writes in a postscript to WN v1 that from then on it'd be all about raising flags and then destroying them. So maybe that was intentional. But then it was also one comment I'd have wanted to read right after the epilogue, because darn, was I annoyed/disappointed by that last minute titbit. ._.

The Eminence in Shadow v1 - Another one, read because not reading would be a waste of the subscription, but helluva what even is this. I don't know.

Unnamed Memory LN v1.p1 I said I was gonna be quick to sub if for example UN showed up and then it actually did show up on JNC Nina. Okay, so sub done and started reading it. And I have ??? about the translations. Like I'd say my French sucks, so at some places I had the English version next to it as a crutch for double checking. Which inevitably makes me notice that it differs at some places from the English one and it's not just the name romanizations. And when I compared some of them with the JP preview and looks like the French one.... actually looks more accurate by those samples? That was interesting, but now I am in doubt about the English translation, which on its own actually had read itself just fine.

Black Butler v31 After Zombies, Titanic, Harry Potter Houses, Cricket, and Idol Group (WTH?) Now we have HAZARD SUITS. I don't even with this series.... It’s boldly thick skinned in doing whatever it wants, that much is for sure. Also, I somehow managed to buy volume 23 again instead of buying 32. How the hell did that happen...

Dance Dance Danseur v1-3 (JP v1-6) It’s a very good sports series. It’s been utterly exhausting however. If one had to sum up the first 4-5 volumes it’s like TEENAGERS. All the stupidity, all the worries, body changes, nervousness, and attraction and horniness and lots, lots, lots of it. That’s just everything I do not resonate with because I never really had that phase. In between it shows some really assy prejudices, but also goes to kick them in the ass. While the latter is rewarding the former still happens and just makes me go yuck right of the first pages. But it does a fair job of not just demonizing that side and even the characters with that assy attitude turn out to be really just human in their own way.

German ramblings from right after reading v3: Wandert auf die wird weitergelesen (wenn auch nicht mit Prio) Liste. Ist zwar immer noch so voll mit Elementen zum Weglaufen für mich, aber es ist mittlerweile nicht mehr ganz so übel TEENAGER und wie das alles zusammenkommt mit den Nebenfigurenelemente ist echt schickt zusammengefädelt.

Die Doppelbände bleiben aber ein Krampf zum in der Hand Halten q_q"

Es hat leider sind es immer noch weitgehend Zutaten, die bevorzuge ich eher in kleiner Dosis, selbst wenn es gut verpackt ist…. Beim Pantyshot und dem "mach doch was männliches" oder den Mobbinszenen hatte ich schon paar 🤢 Momente. Das ganze Pubertäts-Hormonmoster-blabla, ist teilweise auch sehr OTL, vermute mal einigermaßen realistisch getroffen? Hatte das halt nie und dann das ganze hin und her mit Miyako oder er ist nur bei der Schule gelandet, weil der Pantyshot im den Kopf verdreht hat. ufffffz. (Bei Bakemonogatari fängt effektiv auch alles mit einen Pantyshot an, aber da ist es durch die Eskalation der Ereignisskette so extra absurd, dass es was passend sureales hat.) Und das Thema um Passion/Talent wiederfinden/verfolgen/fördern ist halt auch bisschen weiter weg als jemand der gar weder das eine noch das andere hat. Und mit Tanzen kann man mich IRL eigentlich jagen gehen. 🩸

Aber ist schon gut eingebaut mit Nuancen und aufeinander abgestimmt, sieht man selten so, aber auch, Band 2 war echt bisschen zu viel TEENAGER HORMOOOONNEEEEEE. Die Richtung seit Band 3 war mir da echt willkommen. Grad auch dass das mit dem Mobbing wieder kommt. Das hatte sich zwischenzeitlich recht verwässert und unter den Tisch gekehrt angefühlt, aber dann war es doch nur die Ruhe vor dem Sturm.. Also erzählerisch macht es eine sehr gute Figur und bei so vielen Bänden sieht es nach Mehrgängemenü aus~

Diamond in the Rough - Finished It is a pretty solid Shonen read, with an interesting setting, but hell, what is this ending? Did it get axed? It totally just feels like an arc ending shortly before a post time skip part 2 and then it’s suddenly simply just the end.

Girl Crush ch62-63, ch81-82 I found out that it actually has a web serialization elsewhere than just Line Manga (which is geoblocked), so straight shoot at it even if it meant gap jumping. It's still rock solid and great, also it's clearly in the build up stages for the next fireworks. Tenka is just so gorgeous.

Give Her Back to Me That was... creepy, in an intended way. It was interesting, but also just slightly brain frying. I suppose that was also intended.

Iki Dekinai no wa Kimi no Sei: Super Pink I also call this 'the horny porny that shouldn't exist'. It's a spin off doujin by the author from Iki Dekinai no wa Kimi no Sei/Breathless Momentum and it's, well, been quite honest about what its content was going to be about from the preview of the thing. Which is to say it has no plot only plot. All I had when I learned of this release was a jerk reaction of WHY. Didn't the author tweet before there were never gonna be ero scenes in her work? And isn't Breathless Momentum really great, because it's just so utterly unabashed horny, but manages to be that while also never being porny or smutty? (You don't usually get this.) Why now this. I'm all whiny. That being said, as for PLOT it was still one of the better ones I guess. You don't just get horny, it's not just about shanking another up till insanity, but it's also about foreplay and really just enjoying the whole thing with their minds still all sound (you also rarely get something like that) and it's just two who are really hot and horny about another, it's far from their first time, and there is just this sort of self-evident natural playfulness to it. And there's even funny little panels and humor in between. And visual cuteness (they get all hearts in their eyes as pupils over their delectable snacks.) So now, please can I have all the elements like these without the need of beams and holes and overly explicitness and also have it actually be integrated into a main plot please? At least it established the horniness in the main series already, unlike say What did you eat yesterday? - which is also to say, unlike some doujins there, where I wanna scream why it wasn't part of the main plot, because of very important emotional characterization, Super Pink is entirely neglectable to the main plot. But some of its seasonings would have peppered the main series nicely, too, if they were spread out more and not going deep into the horny pot like that....

Isekai de Ane ni Namae wo Ubawaremashita ch17.2-4 This series got licensed by Yen Press. Everyone go read it. It's good~

Lust auf ein Date? (How do we Relationship?) v9-10 Finally the How to we NOT relationship manual turns into a How DO we relationship advice box. But ho girl was the path to it exhausting. A very good series that does lots of things right and well written, but that are things I just don't manage to really like. But how the two mains are going for and knowing how people are gonna likely misunderstand it and one of their girlfriends being all like “you can’t have enough harbors outside of just your lover” just really really makes it looks like it’s going for some queerplatonic angle and I think I’m gonna whine a whole lot if those two wind up being a couple after all in the end.

Okaeri Aureole This is 50% cute-wholesome and 50% the guy deserves a bloody punch. Like how can you have things like this:

And then also have one go and assault the other one in some run in the mill-bad nonCon trope?

Reincarnated as the Daughter of the Legendary Hero and the Queen of Spirits ch19.4-58 This was a surprise and probably not one I would have touched if I couldn’t have tried checking it out on Manga Up. the title is kinda really unfortunate as is its isekai reincarnation premise. It’s kind of pretty irrelevant to the plot and MC literally goes like “but that’s not relevant so story for another time” (which probably will never really happen?) Well, anyway. It has a nice mix of badass girls and mums, intrigues and politics, an interesting fantasy world with some lore, two parents who are just dumbly in love with each other (they remind me of Spice and Wolf, but just more stupid-funny-cute), who can be funny, idiots, dorks and then entirely mature and serious at the switch of a button. The art is cute, too and in general it just has this playful air about it, being very compf, while it’s still interspersed with darker bits of the world and it’s a really nice balance of savory and compf-cute-sweet.

Ride-On King v3 I am not sure what I read there. Probaby same stuff as v1-2, but it has been a while.

Sasaki and Miyano v7 I closed the gap from print and web-reading. Good heavens I’ve read this as it was chapter-serialized in JP, so I already knew what was coming, but darn it is this cheese death worthy collected in a book like this. How to despair as you gotta rereaed the last few pages every 5 pages because your brain just chimed out.

Sonna Kazoku nara Sutechaeba? ch64-66 I’m entirely not sure where this is going to go. The premise conflicts are more resolved than not, so a new character comes in to retrace some of it and then it opens up new themes. Which is like…. gender/trans/nonbinary themes? One scheming girl who’s not below selling her own body?? I’m not entirely sure, as I dumbly missed out on reading some chapters in time before their free reading expired. The kuudere MC teenager's starting to go cheese, while her mother is finding all her sappyness back? Ok.. But it’s kind of interesting how Ichika went from “I’m just on their way, they can spend more cheese twosome time with each other” to But if she went back, she’d not have as much time to spend time with her cheese-subject.

This was still cute tho and absolute nothing I'd ever have expected from this series:

The Angel Next Door Spoils Me Rotten ch13.3-14.1 TINY BITS OF FLUFF FODDERRRRRR, where is the next chapterrrrrr q_q But anyhow! The release date of v1 in German is out and there’s a limited edition with extras and a variant cover, everyone go buy the fluff perfection (for as long as it lasts to be that)~

Ice Lamp: The Chronicles of Kira ch8-41 This has turned into a slight surprise hit so far. The art is solid and knows to be pretty when it needs to. The premise is very fantasy and gender bender driven, but frankly, if this wasn’t fantasy and Kira simply was a boy, it still would have a lot going for it simply by virtue of the art, character interactions and the politics and norms of the world spinning around. Unfortunately I'm now caught up on comikey and have no idea when there’s gonna be more chapters… (until finding out the month after they seem to come regularly now.)

The Villainess Behind the Mask - Finished This seemed like it started with Shinde Mirou to Iwareta Shinimashite x 7th Time Loop at first, it’s like the former in the MC having all that special magic, it is the later in terms of the MC’s character and personality, just not as rich and optimistic and more vengeful. It’s decent enough, but the ending was just a tat anticlimactic and in terms of romance it has a few moments, but they never really got enough room to build up enough chemistry and there’s a whole “buts…!” raised up only to be smashed down at an ending that does feel a little bit too much like axed. Too bad.

To be Winner - Finished. From beginning to end this has positively cute to gorgeous art. The later has been fairly abundantly with the fantasy game settings, but ultimately, it’s just characters on a screen in the world of this story that is just like everyday contemporary RL life so it just felt a bit dissonant. In terms of its actual plot it’s a sports-plot with a romance side-plot with solid execution. E-Sports really is anything but my field of interest, but the rest kept it going regardless. The ending feels round enough, but also a bit like being on the fence about between stretching it on or just finishing on a side plot in the last arc and by the time it decided to be the last chapter it didn’t feel like one whatsoever…

——————————————————————————

MARCH

It is a whole scrumble to keep up with expiry dates on JNC Nina already.

Reading in French is slow business, as is Japanese compared to Englisch and German, and darn it. q_q

One little accidential anime slipped in. Actually I did feel like watching Apothecaries and maybe something else, too, but somehow in the end I just wound up putting all their soundtracks into the playlist to listen to instead...

Anime:

Winter Memories Honkai Impact 3rd Concept Animation

Light Novels:

7th Time Loop V1

Fushi no Kami V1

Hell Mode v2

How to Survive As a Villain Novel ch1-41

Spice & Wolf V21-22

The Case Files of Jeweler Richard v13p10-14

The Eminence in Shadow v2p1-6

The Executioner and Her Way of Life v1

Wolf and Parchment v4

Your Forma v4

Manga:

100-nengo ni Tenseishita Watashi, Zense no Juukishi ni Kyuukonsaremashita: Heika wa Watashi ga Moto Oujo da to Okizukidenai you desu final chapter.1

A Side Character's Love Story Ch49-50.1

Akuma to Keiyaku v1

Ano Natsu ga Houwa suru. ch16.2

Are You Okay with a Slightly Older Girlfriend? Ch1-2.3

Arte Ch84-85

At 30, I Realized I Had No Gender

Black Butler v32

Captain Ken Ch1-16

Cherish v1

Daijuukou to Unicornis no Otome ch14.2-15.1

Domestic na Kanojo v4

Frieren - Nach dem Ende der Reise v4

Girl Crush ch82

Goblin Slayer Year One v9ch61-70

Haikyu v40ch357

Harebare Biyori ch23.2

Hari to Hitsuji no Fune ch10.1

Hiso Hiso v2-3

Horimiya v14-16

I Cannot Reach You v6

I Got Reincarnated in a (BL) World of Big (Man) Boobs ch1

I'm cute enough to get away with it Ch20-23

Is It Wrong to Try to Pick Up Girls in a Dungeon? Familia Chronicle Episode Freya Manga v1ch4

Josou Joushi no Nakasekata v1

Kakan no Oukoku no Hanagirai Hime ch11.3-12.2

Keine Cheats für die Liebe v9-11

Kemutai Hanashi ch13-16

Kijima-san & Yamada-san Ch4-17.2

Knitter's High ch26.3

Koisuru (Otome) no Tsukurikata ch80-81

Kono Koi wo Hoshi ni wa Negawanai ch12.1-2

Koroshi Ai After File prologue, ch1

Küss den Kater v5ch20

Living With My Brother's Wife Ch1-11

Loop 7-kaime no Akuyaku Reijou wa, Moto Tekikoku de Jiyuu Kimama na Hanayome Seikatsu wo Mankitsusuru ch30

Love and Fortune v6ch31

Lovers High - Meine beste Freundin, ihr Freund und ich v1-2

Marry my Enemy Ch59-60.5

Miryou no Otome to Katabutsu Hittou Majutsushi no Hatsukoi Kiroku bangaihen1-2

Miss Kobayashi's Dragon Maid Elma's Office Lady Diary v4ch36

Miss Kobayashi's Dragon Maid Kanna's Daily Life v8

Mr. Mallow Blue ch29

My Awkward Senpai Ch28-54

Okazari Ouhi ni Nattanode, Kossori Hataraki ni deru koto ni Shimashita ~Usagi ga Iru no de Hitorine mo Sabishiku Arimasen!~ ch23.4-25.2

Oshi no Ko ch140-144

Repeating Your End Together ch5

Sasaki and Miyano v7-9ch46

She is also cute today Ch60-125

Shin Henkei Shoujo Ch1-2

Shuumatsu Touring ch36.1-4

Sick v1

Solange wir zusammen sind v2-v7ch28

Sonna Kazoku nara Sutechaeba? ch67

Sooper Spooky Ch1-17

Spring, Love and You v3-5

Suicide Notes Laid on the Table Ch8-19

The Girl I Like Forgot Her Glasses Ch71-80

The Heroic Legend of Arslan v13-v15ch94

The Ice Guy and the Cool Girl Ch39-56

The Strongest Tank's Labyrinth Raids Ch1-2

Unnamed Memory ch34.2-35.2

Urban Prince and the Amazon Girl Ch1-4

Victoria's Electric Coffin v1ch4

Virgin Road v2ch13

Watashi wo Tabetai, Hitodenashi ch36.2-37.2

Wind Breaker v1ch5

Webtoons:

Breed my Dear Enemy Ch99-181

Flowers in the Secret Place Ch45-87

Ice Lamp: The Chronicles of Kira Ch42-44

Taberare Usa ch93-96

The Blind & The Homeless Ch1-7

The Giantess wants Love Ch164-218

The Goddess of Healing Ch54-66

The Mermaid Wears a Dress ch50-60

To be or not be Ch24-122, 1-23

You Are My Lovely Dragon King Ch1-16

Non-Fiction:

Some Greek mythology book (ISBN 9789463598965)

Notes:

How to Survive as a Villain AKA This Villain Emperor's Gotta Charm the Male Lead to Survive! AKA To Be or Not to Be AKA Please Decide on a Title Already The former is the closest translation to the Chinese title, while the second's length and summary-in-title does all the justice to it being an isekai and the last is a bit ??? in hindsight after reading it, but then it's apparantely the official English subtitle and also what made me pick it up on Comikey in the first place, so I should not complain. This is also a series I can dub as 'how to get interested only really at chapter 41 of 122 and then get hooked at chapter 88ish after having everything before read with pretty much just half attention' and it's another specimen to prove that me getting hooked tends always to happen rather late, which makes finding the next great thing really complicated beyond grinding though as much of everything as possible by sheer brute force and patience. (What do I envy people who can judge that right from the beginning.) Well, I'm gonna have some fun rereading it.

Anyway, this series by premise is a bit like My Next Life as a Villainess, but the isekai'd main doesn't have baka trait of Bakarina, then the world being reincarnated to isn't a tropey heavy otome-game thing, but a novel set in Ancient China (no cultivation and other fantasy elements there as a bonus) and the whole thing is also a BL and the narrative has slices of Romeo & Julia, but without that one's teen pathos (stupidity). The isekai'd main Xiao YuAn is a bit ridiculous and funnily goofy at times, but not dumb and stupid either. It's also been strangely weird, but convincing to me how it takes like 60ish chapters for him to notice he's fallen in love with his favorite novel male lead-turned real, and that it doesn't even occur to him until it's being spelled out in clear words and to boot, he is being transmigrated into the body of an emperor known to be gay and everyone's being thinking the thing for far longer and even his beloved male lead Yang HeQing caught onto his own feelings by what, chapter 12? And yet it felt strangely buyable to me at the same time. Very slow burn and organic progression. In the middle there is even a dish of melancholic facing your impossibilities in the world. (Maybe that’s some Weltschmerz and what the Hamlet quote title tries to reference? The vengeance part probably is less so.)

It sets up a lot and then develops it until it reaps its payoff. Which is to say, the series has 3 parts/seasons and the first two and beginning of the third are really rock solid, but the third is there to reap off all the payoffs from before and does it well, but in comparison feels weak because unlike the prior two parts it doesn't set up anyone or anything for itself much beyond the minimum and just reaps previous buildups. There's no new side character beyond the sister of a side character (Hong Xiu kicked ass really) that got killed off and really she is just a paler, meeker Hong Xiu 2.0, which is really too bad, because it could have integrated another new Kingdom into the spotlight, have some mentioned original novel side character show up or have some more side characters come back like they did from part one to two. The overarching plot is also not has interweaved with all the side tales going on and as a result it feels--- a bit simple I guess. That also makes the focus on the pair's lovey dovey shenanigans more heavy and Xiao YuAn is actually just about as silly and goofy as ever, just now knowing what he wants and entirely unhinged about it, and otherwise it's not so very different to the beginning, but due to the extra spotlight it has with not much more else going on it looks more lower dimensional than it needs to be.

Also somehow the last part seemed a bit visually weaker. And I've been really wondering why. Because it wasn't the art's lines or coloring itself. Was that because his second transmigration has made him get a more manly body than that slender, sickly more androgynous body and I maybe liked that style better? But then this never came across as one of those BLs that just shoves a female strereotype on one of the guys as often the case and if it did I'd likely hate it. Or was it the completely unhinged air? Or that he has a more sturdy body that far better can fend itself, but gets all those princess carries and doesn't even complain about them? Was it the thicker eyebrows? Eventually it turned out to be.... Eyelashes!!! The two mains of them, they both have fairly long eyelashes. And supposedly his second transmigration's body is pretty much like his original body, same face and everything, but!!! Every show up of that one at the beginning totally also has him have those longer eyelashes!! And yet in the third part the only times he mostly gets to have longer eyelashes is when he makes pretty eyes for his guy and it's... it's strangely weirdly irritating. Where is the consistency!!! Or well, I didn't know I found longer eyelashes aesthetically pleasing. What do I do with that titbit of knowledge now... Anyway, to my chagrin I had to find out that there was a Japanese print release for this series, but weirdly enough they only released one volume which has firm 1 cipher plastered on its cover and then no further volume afterwards. It's also licensed in English, but by Monogatari Novels who apparently still haven't released any of their releases in English and keep pushing the dates. :/

The art is also really nice, tho I have to moan about its key illustrations that really really look a bit misleading in terms of vibes and the third main key illustration is basically either misleading or a big fat spoiler. (And the fourth that also is being used on Anilist apparently is mostly used as a merch illustration?) Artwise it's really nice to look at, a really nice color palette that freely uses vibrant to darker parts of the spectrum, lots of wardrobes and because guys in Ancient China also all had long hair, lots of wavy fluttering bangs and ponytails in the wind or hairdos or decorations. And long sleeves and robes, too. It looks good (and just made the special chapters in contemporary times look immensely boring in comparison. Where's the wavy hair!! (and the eyelashes!!). (.... I'm getting ridiculous about this.)

That bit in the middle about the conflict of being yourself but also being that new entirely different identity after being isekai'd and the limited amount of people knowing that is also a quite nice mood I feel like that has gone lost from many of the genre from the modern wave. There's also a nice conversation about how the man's caught up in choices and how he's all doubting to being guilty about the choice being made and how ultimately it was never about doing the right thing, but making a choice and feeling bad, because all choices were important, but he had to pick. Also choices are the thing that defy fate literally. There is something soothingly comfy about it there.

How to Survive as a Villain Novel As it goes, the webtoon on Comikey has.............. parts of overtly dubios translation and editing quality and then also other parts with fairly interesting side notes (clearly these parts have to be from diffrent staff working on it??) and while the translation overall feels more clunky than not, it definitely made hints of making a fair number of literary or cultural references that all got lost in translation. And then I found out there's a novel and also there is a fantranslation and that it was taken down because an English release was licensed in Singapour by a somewhat new publisher and pre-orders closed on that on in January, like 2 darn month before I discovered this series. How cursed. Well, not like that the fantransation isn't to be found elsewhere, and it's worth already just for the footnotes on all the literary references and idioms and occasional contemporary slang. Really interesting. But aggregator rip off sites are still all cursed, because there's a good bunch of chapters that have annotation number markings but they haven't copied the footnotes over. Dang it, I'm interested in those!!!

Anyway. The webtoon definitely cut and changed a good few of things, which makes for a more smooth read and at places with additional flourish. Especially the beginning of the novel is equal parts of wtfh and lmao. And it then it dawned on me why it seemed strangely convincing to me that the main Xiao YuAn gets transmigrated into the body of that gay emperor and while he perfectly knows that fact, he doesn't even ever really think much about his attraction to his favorite male lead (that he has been fawning in a few ways over from the beginning). The way he is introduced in those beginning chapters of the novel pretty much introduces him as never having fallen for any woman, his family goes nuts, tries to ship him with some women, but then he's like bolting and running and family goes like wait, no, is he gay then?? and try to ship him into dubious BL ships and he is running and beating them up and like just. Nope. There's nobody. Probably. Anway, onto more important things!!! How about just focus on work and be a useful person to society. Which is such a mood. And add how it takes him a while to accept that Ancient-China-from-the-novel world as properly a real thing of its/his own now and his not even considering the idea despite being perfectly acquainted with the flags kinda feels like more than just the usual amount of density. Besides he really isn't dumb about it, he quickly gets it once it's been clearly spelled out and he gives it its due thinking over, so like just the whole air of him having all the pieces before his eyes all along but not even considering it at all in that way that's not even exactly dense or phobic of some sort is kind of really interesting.

The other part is how he had already killed himself in his original life to begin with. More or less because he was terminally ill and doomed anyway, but also because some brother asked him to. Which is a bit ??? It checks with how the big turning point in the third part plays out and the man may be whiny and a scaredy cat and all silly with his fear of death but actually doesn't even think twice about facing death in all the serious moments that count (which thinking about it is very reminicent of Haku from Utawarerumono Maskt of Deception/Truth), but him just jumping off the fifth floor in those beginning chapters also feels just random. The webtoon definitely did a good job kicking that brother character out of the plot. Apparently the sheer ludicrousness of attempted shipping offs by his family still made it to the webtoon in post-chapter extra scenes; at least I saw some on chinese raws, but the comikey version has them all cut. (And he's got long eyelashes in his original body there!!) Anyway, less than 1/4 read so far and I'll probably space it out for it to last longer. Also, darn it, somebody license the book already. With lots of translation notes and everything please!

Breed my Dear Enemy Ch99-181 So, apparently that’s actually two completely separate series under the same title belt and the first one finishes here. (with a completely nuts numbering order at the end of it on Comikey.) Isekai-transmigration into the body of a child, spanning over a decade, that has a short reverse-isekai adventure, court intrigues, knowing the novel contents already-cheats and there is a deal of courting and romance and a slice of cultivation and some really pretty art at places (especiallyfemale MC Ye Mu’s wardrobe). Ye Mu is also pretty cool in being just absolutely badass in wits and kicking ass herself. The isekai cheat is a bit excessively convenient though - She hasn't even read the book on her own accord, but while she accidentially trips into the book Fushigi Yuugi-style while doing a military raid and gets sucked into that world she literally gets the book contents downloaded into her brain. It does more with the isekai that you'd expect at the end, but somehow that plot device for plotline cheat skills was still extremely deus ex machina. What I also thought was a bit surprising between this and To be and Not to Be both having it was how their last thirds are both quite so very unhinged at being horny and explicitly things happening but without them being graphically explicit. Also both are from China. I did not expect this level of unhinged horniness from that country at all. What happened.

This panel background otherwise was almost phone wallpaper worthy:

It also had some nice ones ones with bamboo trees.

Domestic na Kanojo v4 I am not sure I know what I am even reading.

Frieren - Nach dem Ende der Reise v4 Fern deserves some sla… stern talking tos about her treatment to Stark and no Sein, I very much disagree, they should totally not be together already like that at all.

Fushi no Kami V1 The isekai premise is so old now it is annoying the MC himself already and lots of cheats, but the world’s cultural mystery hook is not too uninteresting, but everything Maika side it a whole slog and I feel like wanting to drop it out of the window every time a PoV change comes to this cheese stricken girl.

Girl Crush ch82 It’s good, it’s still good!

Hell Mode v2 This is strangely keeping me interested enough to stick to it despite it not really having anything outstanding. My best guess is really just that it’s my surrogate to By the Grace of Gods after all.

Horimiya v14-16 - Finished That took some years to get to these last few vols. But I was taken off guard. First I don’t remember any of the side characters anymore. Second. Was Hori always this bad of an obnoxious violent tsundere despite the guy clearly suffering from it? And you can’t even slap her for it, because she’d enjoy it!!

I Got Reincarnated in a (BL) World of Big (Man) Boobs ch1 I’m crying. In “What a whole darn waste!!” So I am still following Adekan. And when it’s good it’s gorgeous in its art and just all that morbid twistedness of human nature and desires so when it’s good it’s usually really good and when it’s bad it's also atrociously bad to my tastes. This one from the same author ditches any chance of a setting to flaunt or otherwise exhibit her talent for all that gorgeous dreamlike, fantastical artwork. And it’s so dumb and it’s kinda bad and it knows it, which I suppose makes it more bearable than the worst parts of Adekan due to the self-aware 4th wall element. But also it’s just such a waste!!! and yet you can clearly feel, this is what the author has fun with and plenty of fun Nao Tsukiji has with this particularness and who am I to criticize a person doing what they like, but still. I cannot help but cry out: What a waste!!!!

Kemutai Hanashi ch13-16 It's been a great series already and now it addresses yet another thing that is hard to put in words, but was captured brilliantly in its mood design by sheer power of character expressiveness. It will be very interesting if it does go on to capture it in words, too, like that brilliant conversation I raved about last time.

Koisuru (Otome) no Tsukurikata ch80-81 Wow. So we had this Aishiteru Game-ish arc, but it quickly moved on to the theatre play arc and frankly that was sweet and solid, but lacked any sense of a wow effect and probably that was the whole point, because wow did that twist (caused through one of the most old trodden tropes boring tropes at that!) hit at the end. It’s like… of course that was always in the cards. But somehow it managed to catch a surprise anyway and wow does it well circling back to one of its main messages it had been delivering so very well across all the series before.

Sasaki and Miyano v7-9ch46 I died a few cheese deaths and I had even read the web version before. I am regressing in my cheese resistance. Help!

Spice & Wolf V21-22 It was easy enough to get back into that after all those years it took me to pick it up again and the Holo-Lawrence bantering just really doesn’t get old. And everytime at the end of the books, where there are stories about Myuri and Col it just strikes how much less engaging that duo is as main characters. Also, seriously, at the end of all the church reforms it’s just gonna be like marriage is allowed for priests and those get together, is it? Hurry up and please get it over already. sigh.

Wolf and Parchment v4 Actually in their own series, it’s less of a slog to read, as there is still a mystery plot to be had around politics and the setting and everything. But I retain, those two are a bit exhausting…

Spring, Love and You v3-5 I had read v1 and actually thought it was surprisingly pretty aroace and also describing how the friction of being that way and the world not being that way can be hurtful and then I read v2 and OF COURSE this was a shoujo and she was gonna fall in love and then I dropped it for years. But now with having read the rest of it… Not like it ever addressed it as such, but the two mains impress a bit as demi or otherwise still a good deal as still on the aroace spectrum and cluenessness about ok, so they are dating and now? and then there is a side character who really looks like very aroace to the end and there is this girl having a crush at him and confessing in a really respectful way of not making him feel guilty or indebted and there’s a really wholesome part to her being kinda in pain, but also just placing good wishes and hopes for him to have somebody special to him, if it comes to that. And the guy goes like instead of feeling happy about any such a confession he feels like he lost something important and ultimately it ends on him hurrying after her, because he doesn’t want to lose her, a really close, trusted friend so far. And then they are dating and the series ends and the girl is happily blushing in the midst of her crush and he is entertaining her crush with a romantically coded gesture (that he does with a completely straight face), but if you ask me, this looks so much like an act of despair of not wanting to lose something precious and not because it winds up he fell for her like that. It would have been really interesting if that could have been explored, because this setup is bound to have all sorts of challenges, but then this series never was gonna be about something like this, was it? Which is a bit sad, because to me it unfortunately will be the only thing I will actually remember about this series. The characters aren’t exactly bad, they are buyably realistically portrayed, but they are also a bit (very) unmemorable and there isn’t much of an actual plot in this school setting to hook you in either.

She is also Cute Today - Finished (??) This was supposed to be some GL, but then it was more like deep friendship and finding your crowd, with a bunch of opposites attract comedy but after some dozens of chapters it's having more clear hints about being more romantic than not, but before it really ever went to get into that more deeply it says end of part 1 and somehow no more other chapters. (According to Anime Planet it's finished??) Well, in terms im GL that's now kinda like what you get from most GL. Something that just barely has a little bit more than a regular deep intimate friendship. But it does introduce a gender NC theme across the series that has a clear queer message said out loud, so just when I starting to think it could go beyond the usual fare but.... Where is Part 2? :<

Taberare Usa ch93-96 Just what the hell am I even reading there now…

The Case Files of Jeweler Richard v13p10-14 I ACTUALLY STARTED. Meanwhile even v7 in English has arrived and I haven’t even touched v6 after that disappointing peek into it.

The Giantess wants Love - Finished It turned out to be a nicely decent read. There’s some solid art throughout and once the romance is official it actually is mature and makes no big deal out of it. The fashion industry setting is nicely used for a number of pretty outfits. One of the last chapters also just barely turned the scales around over at humanizing a gay side character who went to be all like this predatory asshole criminal. There’s quite a gap between the villains and the good guys, with a few having feets on both sides, but like some of these villains just are a bit taxing on patience to sit though.

The Girl I Like Forgot Her Glasses Ch71-80 Seriously, this series and all its cheese is above my wits.

The Goddess of Healing Ch54-66 picked it up where I originally went on a binging frenzy to the end. It’s still good and the MCs bantering is cute, dorky, wholesome and fun, but the villains are getting a whole deal more annoying now. There is also less ambivalence in character being virtuous or not. While motivations are being shown how the villains became that way, there is still a clear divide between the good guys and the bad ones. Looks like I like the ambivalence more that How to Survive as a Villain offers in that same Ancient Chinese setting.

Your Forma v4 Solid. But one plotline was unfortunately super obvious already right at the beginning of the book. It still managed to play with it and put another twist over it, but the first one was unfortunately a bit too obvious to not guess. But then, actually that was already the case in the previous volume, so maybe it’s a bit of a pattern?

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