At the rate you’re going you could do a manga board and then a novel board 
Interesting reviews in your previous post too, my Japanese TBR keeps growing 
8 Likes
Just in case 不可抗力のI LOVE YOU 1 | L20 got your attention, I’ll just expand and mention it’s not an explicit manga. From my message it sounds like it’s TL, but no, it’s still firmly shoujo just with awareness of things we usually ignore and go kyaa about in this genre because everything is better in 2D (haha).
Ohhhh, I guess if I do a loose board not limited to 1 per series for novels… /squints at the prompts with renewed interes/
8 Likes
I’m splitting my bingo into two boards. The original bingo post is here.
Manga board with all original modifiers:
Manga board with planned titles visible (+ links to all)
I may or may not have spent a couple of hours checking when exactly I bought/wishlisted stuff to see what fits. I’m also 100% crazy for adding Yona here - “all owned” is like 47 volumes - but it’d be such an achievement.
Manga links (stay the same, just Ruri got moved to a different square and ranobe squares replaced with manga)
Row 1:
- Ghosts 見える子ちゃん | L23
- No ratings 転生公女は今さら傷つかない 姉の婚約者に嫌われていると思ったのに、溺愛されているようです?: 1【電子限定描き下ろし付き】 | L23
- Going in blind: 夜の名前を呼んで (owned 5 volumes)
- (NEW) Book Club: Yona
- (NEW) Fantasy: 王太子様、私今度こそあなたに殺されたくないんです! ~聖女に嵌められた貧乏令嬢、二度目は串刺し回避します!~ 3 | L23
Row 2:
- (NEW) Past book club choice: Given
- (NEW) Dropped in 2025: 聖女に嘘は通じない(2) | L31
- Finish series: 探偵学園Q
- Sci-fi: ワールドトリガー | L25
- (OLD, but shuffled) Fantastic creatures: ルリドラゴン | L23
Row 3:
- Added by me: 不可抗力のI LOVE YOU 1 | L20
- Published in 2026: 薫る花は凛と咲く 22 少年 | L20
- (NEW and shuffled with Ruri) New to me author: 転生悪女の黒歴史 | L30
- Keep hearing about https://learnnatively.com/book/0f5d164515/
- Why is this on my TBR (I think it was sold at like 0 yen or something?): 俺の死亡フラグが留まるところを知らない | L24
Row 4:
- Historical: ボクラノキセキ 1 | L26
- Lifeform is mood: 暗殺教室 1 | L28
- Has cats: 新しい上司はど天然 | L22
- Not modern period: どうせ捨てられるのなら、最後に好きにさせていただきます | L27
- (NEW) Someone else’s bingo: 魔法少女ダンデライオン | L22 from @catdq
Row 5:
- Won an award - バクマン。 1 | L28 (I’d have rather taken Kono Oto Tomare, but I feel like I’ll never read this one volume of Bakuman, so TBR destruction gets priority)
- Forgot I owned: https://learnnatively.com/book/db82cdb7c1/
- Prettiest book I own: WILD ADAPTER 5 | L27
- Title I can’t parse: 転生悪役幼女は最恐パパの愛娘になりました1巻 | L29
- MC hides part of identity: マッシュル―MASHLE― 1 | L24
Ranobe board (includes children’s books and novels) - that doesn’t have those fancy modifiers
Ranobe board with planned titles visible (+ links)
Here, the same series appears a couple of times to keep me motivated (say hi to Honzuki and Kyokou Suiri)
All links
Row 1:
- Ghosts: 虚構推理 | L38?? volume 1
- No ratings: 小説 アニメ カードキャプターさくら クリアカード編 1 | L27
- Going in blind: ティアムーン帝国物語1~断頭台から始まる、姫の転生逆転ストーリー~ | L32
- (NEW, shuffled) Book Club: Honzuki vol 6 but Junior edition
- (OLD) Fantasy: Slayers vol 1
Row 2:
- (OLD) Past book club choice: 本好きの下剋上 第二部 神殿の巫女見習い2 | L30
- Dropped in 2025: Dahlia
- Finish series: ちょっと今から人生かえてくる thank God I had this, I was seriously considering speedrunning 13 more volumes of Slayers.
- Sci-fi: No 6 - vol 1
- (OLD) Fantastic creatures: Black Blood Brothers vol 1
Row 3:
- Added by me: 傾国悪女のはかりごと
- Published in 2026: ??? (what do I dooooo)
- New to me author: Katarina vol 1
- Keep hearing about: 泣きたい私は猫をかぶる | L26
- Why is this on my TBR: Suzume
Row 4:
- (OLD, shuffled) Historical: FLESH & BLOOD 1 | L35
- Unseen creatures: Kyokou Suiri vol 2
- (OLD, shuffled) Has cats: AoButa vol 2
- Not modern period: Katarina vol 2
- (OLD) Someone else’s bingo: Toradora
Row 5:
- Won an award: ちょっと今から仕事やめてくる
- (OLD) Forgot I owned: 名探偵コナン 世良真純セレクション 異国帰りの転校生 | L27
- Prettiest book I own that I can possibly reach this year: Honzuki vol 11
- Title I can’t parse: Kyokou Suiri vol 3 (what? I can’t read kanji!)
- MC hides part of identity: Honzuki vol 8
(Edit: stylistic choice, the main view now hides planned titles)
10 Likes
I read あした、裸足でこい。
It’s a “Go back in time to save love interest” kind of story. I didn’t know what the 裸 kanji in 裸足 meant when I picked up the book, but luckily despite the name it’s not foot fetishy or anything, which was something I was worried about for a moment. The last 3 sentences of the first volume caught me off guard. There are 5 volumes in total and I definitely want to read more of it! I never really know what I can say about a book story without becoming spoilery so I’ll leave it at that.
I also moved volume 3 of Silent Witch to the “Fantasy Creature” slot to make room in the “Current Book Club” slot for the upcoming ティアムーン帝国物語 | L30?? book club which will complete step one of my very silly bingo goal for this year.
9 Likes
I’m too lazy to make a grid apparently, so I’ll just use the list.
If I match everything, then it’s a completely filled board anyway, right?
- Has ghost(s)
- A book that doesn’t have any ratings/gradings/reviews on Natively 恋した人は、妹の代わりに死んでくれと言った。7―妹と結婚した片思い相手がなぜ今さら私のもとに?と思ったら― | L32
- Going in Blind - no knowledge of the concept, only choosing it based on vibes おるすばん | L28??
- Join/Participate in a Book Club
- Fantasy
- Past book club choice
- Book you planned to read in 2025 and either gave up on or replaced with another read for the 2025 bingo 恋した人は、妹の代わりに死んでくれと言った。3―妹と結婚した片思い相手がなぜ今さら私のもとに?と思ったら― | L32
- Finish a series (can be either one you are already reading or you can start a new one) 恋した人は、妹の代わりに死んでくれと言った。8―妹と結婚した片思い相手がなぜ今さら私のもとに?と思ったら― | L32 (I’m kinda spamming this series, but, as the prompt implies, I did read a lot of it this year)
- Science fiction
- Mythological/fantastical creatures
- A book that you added to Natively 魔導具師ダリヤはうつむかない ~今日から自由な職人ライフ~12 | L30
- Published in 2026 本好きの下剋上 ハンネローレの貴族院五年生3 | L31
- Read an author you’ve never read before ifの悲劇 | L35
- Book you keep hearing about but haven’t read yet 転生王女と天才令嬢の魔法革命 | L32
- Why is this in my TBR? - for titles in your TBR that you keep skipping over
- Historical fiction
- Has a creature/lifeform you have never seen in real life
- Has cat(s)
- Set in a period that’s not modern
- Book from someone else’s bingo card
- Book that has won an award
- I forgot I bought this - a book that you forgot you owned ツミデミック | L32
- Prettiest book you own
- Title you didn’t understand when you first saw it
- Main cast character hides (part) of their identity.
10 Likes
and I thought I was lazy this year 
don’t even have to fill the board…just a row, column or diagonal even! 
7 Likes
I have a big update!
I finished 6 books since my last post.
First (probably?) I finished 한밤의 시간표, which was the book club book and already mostly done. I don’t think it’s that good.
Then I finished 가공범, a recent Higashino Keigo book, for the buddy read 2. Could have been better, but had a lot of interesting tropes and a fun conclusion. 4 stars. I have been watching @kelorae and @ddochii read it slower than me and it has been fun to read their predictions. We will read 방과 후, Higashino Keigo’s debut novel, as another buddy read starting June 1. Very excited for that.
Then I noticed that my e-library got a bunch of new books, so I randomly checked out a YA book with a cute premise, called 스티커, and read it in 2 days. It had a god of death in it, so I put it under “mythological creatures.” It reminded me why I don’t read YA, though. It was a bit trite.
Next I decided to read two very short books (50-60 pages). The first was 사랑도 초콜릿도 때로는 살인도, a short story I bought last year (so it’s in the 내돈내산, something I bought square) from a new favorite author. As expected, it was extremely bizarre and interesting. 4 stars. The second was 현실 온라인 게임, which I picked up from @DFG just based on the title being interesting. It didn’t fit into any of my squares, so I just put it off to the side. I will have to expand the bingo later anyway, and for me, the goal is to make a nice graphic with all the books I read this year.
Lastly! I filled in the “final boss book” square! I wasn’t planning to do it so early, but I ended up discussing the book a bit with an online Korean acquaintance. He said don’t be fooled by the comp score – there are words Koreans don’t know in there. You can do it. So I just decided on a whim to pick up 눈물을 마시는 새 1, The Bird Who Drinks Tears, for the first time in a year. It wasn’t as hard as I expected, although making sense of the lore was challenging, and it was really good! Felt just like reading a good western fantasy, but in Korean – the worldbuilding is impeccable. And it is now the longest book I have read in Korean, both in page count and character count. First 5 star read of this year (that’s kind of sad…).
Next… I have made no progress with 13.67 so that’s something I will do at some point. I’m halfway through my nonfiction pick and I plan to start another sci-fi book club next week. Like I said, my e-library got a bunch of new books, and some are by authors whose previous works I’ve liked, so I have my eye on a book by the author of 마지막 증명, which I read last year and liked. OR I might just go straight to 눈마새 2, the sequel to the final boss book.
13 Likes
a detour (not important)
Added ハルタ -MAY volume 94 | L30 to the board for “Multiple Contributors” and moved ハルタ 2021-DECEMBER volume 90 to “Pretty”. They’re both pretty, but I really liked the winter theme … wait …
Actually, the prettiest one I read this year was ハルタ -APRIL volume 93 | L30.
And I just realized that I could put any of the multiple issues that I read this year into Multiple Contributors … No! I will resist the temptation! (For now.) (But that blue sky did look really nice underneath of Nako and Bonbon …)
Prettiest read of the year so far was ハルタ -APRIL volume 93 | L30.
| B | I | N | G | O |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Past club | Finish a series | Cats and Dogs | Title doubletake | Fantasy |
| Dropped | Meta | Nonfiction | About language | Non-modern |
| One word title | Someone’s card | Reread | SF | Unseen lifeform |
| Pretty | Ghosts | Mythological | New author | Multiple contributors |
| Queer | Final Boss | Natively Unreviewed | MC hidden identity | Award |
11 Likes
N2 - Has a creature that I’ve never seen in real life: お前、タヌキにならねーか? 1 | L24 (‘Would You Like to Be a Tanuki?’)
I have seen tons of tanuki statues and figures in Japan, but I’ve never actually seen a real one! The statues don’t look anything like them 
This manga is an episodic series of vignettes centring on several tanuki interfering with the lives of humans, of which most are about the tanuki Koganemaru trying to convince suicidal and troubled humans to live as carefree animals instead. There are a handful of chapters that connect to each other and offer some continuity, but for the most part the stories just felt like random anecdotes about tanuki shenanigans with no real point or resolution. The tanuki are adorable, and there are some wholesome and hopeful moments, but I can’t recommend this one in terms of story or depth of the characters, and I probably won’t continue reading the other volumes.
I didn’t dislike reading this one, but through the whole thing I was wondering why I was reading it and when the payoff was going to be, and it never came. I’m not a fan of short stories and anthology-style works in general, though, so once I realized that each chapter was about a different depressed person and none of the characters were going to get enough space for me to get invested in their stories, I kind of checked out.
9 Likes
Some persons will come back, though, regularly in later chapters/volumes. But it stays episodic, even if some episodes get longer with time.
4 Likes
For “non-modern” I’m using: 魔女犬ボンボン ナコと幸せの約束 | L23
No one said it had to be realistic fiction!
But if I do read historical fiction or something set in the future (of our world) later this year then I will probably swap it out.
| B | I | N | G | O |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Past club | Finish a series | Cats and Dogs | Title doubletake | Fantasy |
| Dropped | Meta | Nonfiction | About language | Non-modern |
| One word title | Someone’s card | Reread | SF | Unseen lifeform |
| Pretty | Ghosts | Mythological | New author | Multiple contributors |
| Queer | Final Boss | Natively Unreviewed | MC hidden identity | Award |
7 Likes
Yesterday I finished 生を祝う | L28 and - wow! This was something. Probably the most “Asian-mindset” book I’ve read in a long time, or maybe ever.
Anyway, conveniently it was also set in the future, so into Sci-Fi it goes
Now if you would excuse me, I need to finish the book for the “Fantasy” square to gain me two bingos
9 Likes
I confidently misread it as 生を呪う 
For those of us who don’t learn Japanese: I read it as “Cursing life”, when the title is “Celebrating life”…
Those kanji are more similar than I like them 
7 Likes
I’ve definitely forgotten which is which before 
3 Likes
Haha you’re onto something here
8 Likes
Another 2 squares down, finished ドラゴンクエスト ダイの大冒険 勇者アバンと獄炎の魔王 1-15 (f) and also finished 時と永遠 1 (f) when I started feeling burnt out around volume 10-11.
I missed a lot of nuance and also some of the story by the time my focus was checking out around volume 15. Too many unknown words and not enough motivation to search them out will definitely be a re-read once I get better.
Now at 69/ 175 read though that top number will change since a few extra volumes of some of my series have been released.
Next up: となりの妖怪さん 1-6 (no Furigana).
Previous reads:
マンガでたのしくわかる！空手 1 (f) - non fiction
元戦闘用奴隷ですが、助けてくれた竜人は番だそうです。 1-2 (f)
ベル・プペーのスパダリ婚約~「好みじゃない」と言われた人形姫、我慢をやめたら皇子がデレデレになった。実に愛い!~ 1-2 (f)
Edit: total number to read is now 181 including the additional volumes released for series on my bingo list. So 69/ 181, approx 15 per month meaning I need to complete another 6 volumes by the end of May to stay on track
10 Likes
| B | I | N | G | O |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| queer | finish a series | cats | title you didn’t understand 홍학의 자리 | L30 | fantasy 화산귀환 1 | L28 |
| previously dropped | TBR | going in blind | added to natively 회랑정 살인사건 | L27 | non-modern period |
| published in 2026 | someone else’s card | free space 가공범 | L32 | science fiction | has a creature you’ve never seen irl |
| pretty cover 미제레레 | L32 | ghosts | physical read | new author | keep hearing about |
| book club (past or current) | previously planned to read | non- reviewed / rated / graded 번외 | L30 | hidden identity 비밀 | L30 | won an award |
UPDATE!!!
| free space - 가공범 | L32 |
|---|
Pretty good Higashino. Felt funny to read a book of his that’s not taking place in like…80’s/90’s Japan lmao.
| added to natively - 회랑정 살인사건 | L27 |
|---|
Read this from start to finish for the reading challenge. Kind of feels like it happened in a fever dream LOL totally forgot abt reading it. Another Higashino, but a little less 용의자 x의 헌신 and more 가면산장 살인사건.
| title you didn’t understand - 홍학의 자리 | L30 |
|---|
Finished today! So fun and really 쑥쑥 읽혔어d. We love a multiple POV mystery.
My next book WON’T BE A MURDER MYSTERY I swear 
10 Likes
Finally finished my third novel of the year. Feels like it took foreverrrrr 
O3 - A book that has won an award: 君の膵臓をたべたい | L30 (‘I Want to Eat Your Pancreas’)
Unfortunately my opinion of this book is too coloured by how confusing, frustrating, and discouraging I found the reading experience to be as a learner to be solid. I have a very low tolerance for things I don’t understand, so though I probably still had a good ~85% comprehension level, the ~15% that I was utterly lost with made it very hard to enjoy reading. In the books I’ve read before this one, the number of times in a whole book that I couldn’t dictionary or logic my way into understanding a sentence and had to give up and use Google Translate could be counted on fingers – but this book had me going to Google several times per page, and still after ‘cheating’ not always understanding how to parse what was being said.
So now I feel pretty lost in terms of predicting what type and difficulty of books I can comfortably read, which pulls me farther away from my goal for this year 
. This was my first ‘real’ novel that’s not aimed at children (though it’s still pretty young-adult-ish IMO)… so is the writing for grownups really just so different that I need to go back to chapter books? Or is L30 just too high a level for me, despite me being around/beyond N1 and previously managing prose at ~L28? Or is it just this one author’s writing style that I don’t get, and my trouble with this one book is not representative of the rest of the grown-up, ~L30 books I will read?
My next novel doesn’t have a Natively level yet, but most of the books by that author in Natively are in the L30-L35 area, so I’ve got a bit of the fear of god in me now that I won’t understand it or finish it in time to add it to my bingo board, if it’s similar or more difficult than this book was. Wish me luck 
11 Likes
Struggling through となりの妖怪さん 1-6 (no Furigana) though I managed to finish the first one and part of the second one so that series is still in progress.
I read through ドラえもん 1 (f) to get a break and complete another bingo square. It’s the only volume of the series I have in my collection but I won’t be buying the rest for my collection. No issues with it but I just don’t feel like reading the rest of the series.
I think in between non furigana volumes I will look at reading separate furigana containing volumes so I don’t burn out on it.
71/180 volumes read. I don’t think I’ll manage another 4 by the end of the month but I’ll give it a try to stay on track with my goal.
9 Likes
but that’s mostly due to the three or so book clubs that run in parallel 
