Ah, that’s smart; makes sense, especially with the ラビッツ bit as well.
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So I found something pretty cool this morning: 吸血鬼と愉快な仲間たち | L30?? is finally getting a digital version! They’ve been physical-only for quite a while now, but it looks like the novels were finally digitized sometime last year with the release of new bunko versions. (You have me to thank for that, by the way. I finally bit the bullet and bought them physically since there were no digitals. 
Aaaand it looks like the new bunkos have new short stories added; stop it, publishers.) Not only that, but a sixth volume was published Dec 20! For context, volume 5 was published in 2011; 2025 is truly the year of series on hiatus coming back to life. 
By the Amazon description, sounds like this is slated to be the final volume as well?
While I have yet to dip into the novels, I can definitely recommend the manga series, as that’s how I found the series. A sixth volume of that came out last June, which I just found out about, and I want to read it, but maybe it would be better to spend my time starting the novels… 
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In celebration of the series finally getting digital versions, I’d like to nominate the first book for the club!
Title: 吸血鬼と愉快な仲間たち | L30??
Book type: Novel
Available formats: physical / ebook
Summary - Japanese
昼間は蝙蝠、夜だけ人間。牙がないから血も吸えない。そんな中途半端な吸血鬼アルは、アメリカで孤独に暮らしていた。が、お腹を空かせて迷い込んだ食肉倉庫で、うっかり冷凍蝙蝠にされてしまう。目が覚めるとそこは……日本!? 真っ裸で警察に捕まったアルは、謎の男・暁に（散々文句を言われつつも）助けられ、一緒に暮らすことになるけれど、この男は口が悪くミステリアスで……。事件に恋に大忙し、 半人前吸血鬼アルの奮闘記！
Summary - English
(Taken from the English manga summary; it should be close enough.)
Since becoming a vampire, Albert’s life has fallen into an unchanging cycle-day to night, bat to vampire, USA to…Japan? After a mishap at a meat-processing plant in Nebraska, bat-Al is flash-frozen alongside his midday snack and shipped to a foreign land! Explaining to police how he really ended up wandering naked is out of the question, not to mention he doesn’t know a word of Japanese! Al will have to rely on the kindness (?) of his new companions if he’s going to get by in Tokyo-that is, if he can convince them he’s the bat!
Content Warnings
I’m not sure how much of the book the manga covers, so I’m not sure when certain scenes happen, and if any scenes were cut for the adaption. There’s a couple of scenes relatively early on in the manga (volumes 1 and 2, I think) where the protagonist is violently attacked by a man with a knife, which will probably be included in this volume.
Reason(s) for nominating: I’ve really enjoyed the manga adaption, and have wanted to read the original novels for a while now. Note that I’m not sure how the BL will go in this series; in the manga at least you could argue for more of a found family vibe than straight BL (though it’s been a while since I read it, admittedly), and I don’t know if that’s faithful to the source material or not. (Tagging @bungakushoujo since I know you like (?) the author. She’s the same author as the one who wrote 箱の中 | L32 and 美しいこと | L32 .)
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Ooooh! Thanks for tagging me! Literally my favorite BL author. 
I’ve read so many of her books and they’ve mostly all been fantastic. I should make a ranking haha. 
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Ok why not! Here is my 木原音瀬* ranking. Apologies for not using natively links, but I think some aren’t on the site (and I wouldn’t put some of these on my bookshelf anyways hahaha 
)
- 月に笑うシリーズ
- this has basically every trope I love and is one of my personal top BL stories ever! Yakuza, tsundere, and the story is very varied and interesting, including some thrilling and tense scenes. - 美しいことシリーズ - just barely coming in behind 月に笑う for me, this is like the salaryman BL bible. Frustrating, sad, angsty and introspective. Getting the digital version of the third volume is a must for closure!
- 秘密 - I came expecting a psycho thriller involving murder and a refrigerator and finished the book crying because of the ending.
This is a unique gem amongst books. - ラブセメタリー - Not exactly BL but relevant to the story. I appreciated the research and thought that went into writing about such a taboo subject, but not for everyone. Very dark with zero redemption.
- 灰の月 - spinoff of 月に笑う with other yakuza characters. This was the first 木原成音 book I ever read (which is hilarious in hindsight considering how grueling it is). It has the most insane ending of any book I’ve ever read and was emotionally taxing, but I couldn’t put it down and got hooked to her writing!
- 探し物屋まやまシリーズ - not BL at all, just a regular LN but has iykyk bromance vibes. In particular the first volume of this was sooo fun to read and one of my favorite from the year I read it in! The idea was so interesting.
- 鈍色の華 - this was…so cursed and I can’t believe I read it tbh haha. Slightly humorous. I read it during a stressful time in my life and I guess some silver fox H was what I needed.
- 深呼吸 - this entire book is just so relaxing and peaceful to read. I’ve reread it before just for the vibes.
- 薔薇色の人生 - one for all the クズ男 lovers. It was pretty sweet and only mildly stressful!
- 箱の中 - I really appreciated how thrilling and interesting the story ended up turning out, but this was not my favorite pairing of hers. I heard the follow up story gives more closure, but it’s not on digital.
- ココロシムラ - not really BL (again has some kind of iykyk vibes and trademarks of typical 木原 characters), but I appreciated that she wrote an entire purely horror/mystery novel! The plot was very fresh and something only she could write.
- パラスティック・ソウル - I’ve only read vol. 1 from this series and it didn’t hook my attention as well as her other books, maybe because of the fantasy setting. I’m also not hugely into 猫耳 stuff, but if you are you’d like this!
- WELL - I DNF’d this because it was just too bleak and I couldn’t go on. Respect the attempt to write unique BL in a post apocalyptic setting, though.
Those are all the ones I’ve read so far and luckily she still has so many more! I tend to save them up for when I want a really engrossing or cathartic reading experience so I can savor them, so progress has been slow. Writing this ranking really makes me want to pick up a new book from her, though…
In general, her books have some really unpredictable plots and interesting characters, who are sometimes extremely unlikeable. She doesn’t shy away from a bad ending, so I’m on the edge of my seat with every book all stressed out and desperately praying that things turn out ok for the characters. I think that’s a talent! 
It’s a great reading experience every single time.
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Whoa, thank you for the amazing breakdown! I love seeing posts like these! We need some more good BL analysis here.
吸血鬼と愉快な仲間たち so far seems normal in terms of plot/characters (in the manga, at least), but a bad/sad ending is something that’s been on my mind for a while for this series, and I’m curious where she’ll take it. (Why that’s been on my mind, small spoiler thoughts for the series: you know how vampires have long lifespans/live forever? We definitely get a lot of introspection on “what do I do when all my loved ones pass away? Should I turn them into a vampire? Would I? Do they even want that?”)
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I mean, I just selfishly want more people to read her books so I have someone to talk about them with!
I am intrigued by the plot! I should try and get around to reading it soon (or maybe your nomination will win?)! She also recently released a new book called 惑星 that looks sufficiently stressful and angsty that I want to check out…
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isn’t it 木原音瀬 ? 
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It is, I always mix up 成瀬 and the fact her name has the uncommon 音 usage and get them twisted around 
I’ll fix it
Edit to add, I frequently mix up numbers in real life and get parts of them twisted around like 378/387 and find sometimes I do with kanji words too, especially names that are “in isolation”. Anyone else? Not a topic for the BL thread but just something I find curious haha
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Well, if nominations are allowed right now.
Book type: manga
Available formats: physical / ebook
Summary - Japanese
大学OBのハクに誘われ、代行業のアルバイトを始めた春真。怪我で部活をやめてから何もやる気がしなかったのに、一緒に体を動かすことはふつうに楽しかった。けれどハクには「男も女も食っちゃう」という、穏やかでない噂があるらしい。半信半疑の春真だったが、ハクといるとなぜかドキドキする自分に気づいてもいて……？ 年下攻メランコリック・ロマンス。
Summary - English
Haruma was invited by Haku, a college alumnus, to start a part-time job as a substitute. Haruma had been feeling like doing nothing since he quit club activities due to an injury, but working out together with Haku was fun in general. However, there is a rumor that Haku is said to “eat both men and women ”. Haruma was skeptical, but he also noticed that for some reason he felt nervous when he was with Haku. …? A melancholic romance about a younger man.
(Translator: Deepl)
Content Warnings
Unknown
Reason(s) for nominating: I’ve been reading other works by the author, including a seinen romance (おとなりに銀河 1 | L26) and Yuri anthology (終電にはかえします (ひらり、ス) | L18), and wanted to read one of their BL works. I settled on this one simply because it’s one of their newer ones
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Yes, they are indeed! I usually only mention it right before voting, but nominations are always open unless we already have 20 nom slots filled. This book makes 12 noms total, so we’ve still go plenty of room!
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I have lost track of our nominations. Do we have a list somewhere? Also of what is currently not eligible to be nominated? 
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Here’s our current nomination list, which you can find in the OP under the “Selection History” drop-down, linked by the most recent poll round (C4). There’s also an officially natively list here.
Currently excluded titles can be found in the OP under the “Temporarily Excluded Titles” drop-down.
1 Like
Thank you very much!
Then I just need to decide which of my priorities to nominate...
おやすみなさい、また明日 | L28
僕が夫に出会うまで | L30
猫耳探偵と助手 | L30??
乗るのはどっちだ | L30??
社長、会議に出てください! | L30
鏡よ鏡、毒リンゴを食べたのは誰? | L30??
妖魔と下僕の契約条件 1 | L30??
It’s like choosing a favourite child… 
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Huh, I’m surprised I don’t have that nominated here. It’s in two other clubs’ noms list; might as well make it a trifecta, right?
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It has to get picked somewhere at some point.
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Probably as soon as I give up on waiting and decide to just read it myself.
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By popular vote…
Book type: light novel
Available formats: physical / ebook
Summary - Japanese
その日、足達正路は世界で一番不幸だった。
大学受験に失敗し二浪が確定。
バイト先からは実質的にクビを宣告された。
さらにひき逃げに遭い瀕死の重傷。
しかし死を覚悟したとき、怖ろしいほど美形の男が現れて言った。
「俺の下僕になれ」と。
自分のために働き「餌」となれば生かしてやると。
合意した正路は生還を果たすが、
契約の相手で、人間として骨董店を営む「妖魔」の司野と暮らすことになり……。
ドキドキ満載の傑作ファンタジー。
Summary - English
The worst―and last―day of his life! Masamichi Adachi left his hometown in the country to study agriculture at university. He prepared diligently for the exam, got his own apartment, and landed a part-time job to pay rent and support himself. He’s doing everything right, so why is it all going horribly wrong?! He’s failed the entrance exam twice, lost his job, and to top it all off, a hit-and-run leaves him a lonely, bloody mess on a dark road. Just as he accepts his fate and goes toward the light, an unlikely savior approaches, drawn by the smell of his blood. A contract with this stranger could give him a second chance at life, but will he agree to terms that include being eaten alive?
Reason(s) for nominating: I want to read it. Is that reason enough? But in all seriousness, it’s one of the series I want to try to see if I want to continue or drop it. It sounds intriguing.
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We did it! \o/
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So Bunpro allows users to create their own custom decks and share them, and I was hoping to create a deck for the first Flesh&Blood book since there was a small group that might be interested in reading the book at some point in the future, but I think I’m going to have to give up for the time being. The extractor tool I’m using at the moment just isn’t that accurate, sadly, and doing a test run of chapter 1 had me basically reading along with each individual sentence in order to catch inaccuracies, which definitely isn’t sustainable.
Does anyone know how to request decks be added to jpdb.io? So they can do my work for me.
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