That’s the issue with „unsolicited“ right? You don’t ask for it by definition, and so it’s hard to tell for others that you‘d maybe like it 
Will keep the „sadly“ in mind for some time or another 
(speaking of which, have you read Flesh&Blood yet? 
)
Anyone interested, feel free to join us in January: Flesh & Blood novel - Informal Club - starts Jan 2026
own and really wanna read this one but pretty sure a L35 book will be the end of me 
That’s very real… I’ll certainly be doing some pre-study in December 
Well you should read 穏やか貴族の休暇のすすめ。 | L32
The author swears it’s not BL. They are very adamant about it. Nothing to see there.
No, I believe in you! 
If all works out probably the majority of the people reading it with the group will have little experience with L35 books, so you’ll be in good company! I’ve shared some vocabulary resources over there as well if you wanted to pre-study!
I’m going to have to join in on the dog pile. @nikoru’s suggested the excellent FLESH & BLOOD 1 | L35, which I see you’ve read vols 1-2 of (which means you need to read vol. 3, of course), and @Naphthalene’s suggested 穏やか貴族の休暇のすすめ。 | L32, which I also approve of. My unsolicited recommendation’s gonna be… クォンタムデビルサーガ アバタールチューナーI | L30! Sci-fi demon cannibalism, what’s not to love?
Just flip very quickly past all the suggestive pictures. And paragraphs. Someone else put those in, I swear.
This is clearly a trap… and I’m not falling for it 
Can’t keep up with the big fishy readers here yet
Seems like all I needed to door was complain a bit. Thanks for the suggestions! I do appreciate them. 
Thanks! Looks pretty cute; does it become less slice-of-life-y in later volumes?
Indeed! The solution was so simple all along. I have read some of Flesh&Blood, yes. I’m considering getting some physical volumes, luggage space pending.
That does sound very interesting. 
It’s also on KU, making it very appealing…
As does this! I never did finish those games. Maybe I can find a physical copy!
It does, particularly in the third (and final) volume. Short and sweet! Hmm, I might be due for my first reread sometime soon, come to think of it. 
Finished グッド・バイ | L33, filling my “author’s legacy” square! It was 太宰’s final (and unfinished) work, so it felt appropriate for the square. Two left!
Since March, I’ve filled out 5 more spaces. There were some pretty emotional reads in there! I actually cried reading Dear Gene. I got Sayonara Rose Garden from @qdsl’s bingo and it was a good choice. Too bad I chickened out in Japan and only bought the first two volumes. This self-imposed cliffhanger is my penance.
I also moved my friend’s recommended manga to a different space since I plan to read another one of their recs. So three things on my card will end up being recs from the same friend!
Retirement age has been giving me the most trouble and I’m giving up on it. I’ve changed it to the interesting title prompt instead.
I may finally read that this month as part of my “read 5 physical books I own, per month” challenge. Unfortunately I also only have vol 1-2, cuz I couldn’t find vol 3 when I ordered
What is your “not set in Japan” one?
Bingo update 1 month later!! The last month was a slow one. I went on two weeklong vacations and did a lot of socializing, not so much reading.
악마의 계약서는 만기 되자 않는다 was a solid 4 star read. I had dropped it a few months ago and picked it back up. It reads like a self-contained webnovel – very quippy and funny. My first full-length romance novel in Korean, and extremely chaste compared to the western romances I’m used to.
긴키 지방의 어느 장소에 대하여 - finally a 5 star read. While the plot itself took a while to develop and I never really got hooked on it, some of the individual accounts terrified and riveted me. The ending was chilling. I read this book while walking home at night a few times and it made me keep looking behind me. It’s a Japanese language original, so I’d urge any Japanese learners who want to be scared out of their minds to consider it!
너의 유토피아 by 정보라 was my last read of this update, and my first 정보라 book. Her books, as sci-fi short story collections, are a bit low comp for me compared to mysteries, and I’m also not usually in the mood for short stories, even though some of my favorite books, including in Korean, are short story collections. If some books are difficult to get hooked on because they aren’t presented in an immediately interesting way, short story collections are even harder because you need to prime yourself for an entirely new setting every 20-70 pages. 너의 유토피아 was a solid 4-star, almost 5-star read. The first story made me laugh out loud several times – one of my favorite short stories ever. 여행의 끝 was another captivating and quite scary story; though I predicted the ending, it still affected me. 아주 보통의 결혼 was much shorter but managed to make me cry. The other stories were somewhat mid, with the titular “너의 유토피아,” about a self-driving car AI, perhaps being my least favorite. But with the exception of that story and “그녀를 만나다,” every story made me feel something, even if I didn’t know quite what I was feeling or if I had understood the story in the way intended by the author.
Next on the docket: 불편한 편의점 2, of which I have read 25%, and probably back to 히가시노 게이고 books.
I tried to order them first and couldn’t find them online either.
It’s this one.
Natively page
Mangaupdates
The art is gorgeous. I’ve not read another manga that looks like it. But I can’t say it’s good. Entertaining at least.
The challenges of liking a niche genre 
What did you think? I thought it was kinda boring at first, but it grew on me a lot, and now it’s the only show I’m caught up with
Sappy stuff like that is right up my alley so I love it. Got me kicking my feet like a giddy middle schooler.
Filled the slot “Curious Title” with the entry:
The title literally means “A Love Letter for the Marching Puppy” - and tells the story of an impoverished girl that enters the academy for female military officials in post-war japan.
The level 28 of the manga is probably well deserved. Some chapters have huge spikes of difficulty that involve military terminology, old kanji most OCR and kanji-drawing applications can’t even recognize because they are no longer in use, and a lot of dated terms.
The main character has the last name 犬童 and, as expected from having the “dog” kanji in her name, has some dog-ish traits that the story often uses to play puns. It’s also fun that the manga uses the word 接吻 for kissing (which can be interpreted as “adjoining snouts”)
The manga concentrates only in a few handful characters, which is probably for the best with only 5 volumes. The character development is okay. The actual story was nice, though there was one major plot point I felt was not as dramatic as the story tried to portray it, which made the resolution feel a bit underwhelming.
The art wasn’t bad, but also not particularly outstanding. The characters are nicely drawn, but the backgrounds were subpar (if present at all). I did enjoy a few moments where the mangaka went with several consecutive panels of changing facial expressions to better depict the character reactions, which was used nicely in key moments.
Sadly the prospects of filling my whole bingo card this year look grim, but I am having fun trying to fill as much of it as possible. On to the next read!
Have you considered leaving your thoughts as a review on the book page? It hits on some good stuff that mine doesn’t.
Hmm, I got sick of looking things up in vol 4-5, but I don’t remember having any issues with older kanji (using Google Lens & Akebi)… tho maybe I skipped looking those particular words up
I have considered that, but I find confusing that reviews are per volume and not per series.
While in some cases like slice-of-life or episodic comedies without much of an overarching plot different reviews per volume would make sense, it’s more difficult for series with overarching plots, where developments in later volumes can affect my impression of earlier volumes (e.g., volume 1 sets up a very intriguing mystery, but when it gets resolved in volume 3 with a non-nonsensical explanation, any high opinion of volume 1 lowers considerably)
Does it make sense to just post a whole series review in the volume 1 of a series?
Sadly I didn’t take notes or screenshots of any instances of kanji I had trouble looking up, but I’ll definitely give Google Lens / Akebi a try next time I run into something like that!
Watched the first few episodes of 薫る花は凛と咲く for an adaptation.
