I finally finished ツバサ… I finally get the Reservoir Chronicle part of the name!! I definitely last read 26 & 27, but took my time with the final volume. Definitely not reading xxxHolic till I’ve had a goooood long break from CLAMP lol
My next physical manga to get through is 月姫. After that I guess I’ll see if I’m in the mood for something easy (ie romance) or something hard (ie fantasy) or both (Shirayuki lol)
I wanna get 声優ラジオ finished up soon too. I think that should probably be about the same amount of time as finishing 月姫. Been thinking about watching 響け!ユーフォニアム to my current watches. The seasons are only 13 eps, so I should be able to catch up quickly enough.
I was reading through some of an interview with the ガルクラ voice actors in Animage magazine. It’s inconvenient to read (such small print, not selectable), but the some of the phrases are really useful, and it’s cool. I might try to find more interviews in general to read. Speaking of useful phrases, apparently the equivalent of “slow burn” is じっくり恋愛 又は徐々に深まる恋
Tried listening to some of the ガルクラ drama tracks, and wow my comprehension word recognition is really hit or miss on that. I wonder if it would be worth it to try going through something like that in lessons or something. Or just sitting down and trying to transcribe it… Idk that I should get so hung up on that sorta thing tho
Watched the latest ep of 声優ラジオ without subs (but “listen twice, check EN subs, re-listen” for things I wasn’t getting). It was definitely challenging (esp the アフレコ scene), but productive. I’m 55% through book 1… Funny enough it just finished an アフレコ scene there too. There’s about 4 hours of audio left. Update: I’ve been switching btwn 1-1.25x… 2.5 hrs of audio left at this point. I’d really love to finish the whole thing tonight, but not sure how realistic that is. Update: I finished it. For the last 25% or so, I l put it on 1.25x and just stopped doing lookups. There’s a bonus chapter (audiobook only) that I’ll probably listen to, just for practice. The anime is in the middle of LN 2 rn, and I’m considering continuing the series.
Considering going to AnimeNYC, cuz 斎藤千和 is one of the guests (she voiced ヨナ in 暁のヨナ, クロエ in Prisma/Ilya & FGO, and various other chars). It’s expensive for one day tho, so I’m on the fence. But it would be great incentive to really work on my listening & conversation skills!!
I put a mini-bookshelf with 12 books right next to my desk. The books are either things I’m reading, or have been eying to read. It’s great for motivation, and already got me to finish 3 manga today (はなにあらし 2, 五等分の花嫁 2, 月姫 4), and partial read ルリドラゴン 1 Picking 五等分の花嫁 up again is soooooo nice. It feels super comfortable, and is just the sorta thing where I get totally absorbed in it. I still have to look up words that I don’t really see elsewhere, but otherwise it’s in the “I can just read it” category. At this point I’ve got my “physical items used” up to 35.4% (79% if you add digital).
Some current/recent reads:
https://learnnatively.com/book/65a6f5e946/ - lots of lookups & need to check the translation, but an achievable difficulty. The fact that it’s going decently is making me consider picking up Prisma Ilya again
堀さんと宮村くん 3 | L26 - doing alright with this… definitely would be lost w/o my teacher to help with some of the handwriting tho!
ぼっち・ざ・ろっく! 3 | L28 - doing ok with this. I feel like I’m having an easier time understanding, though it might just be the particular section I’m in. My reading is definitely getting smoother. I get through 10-12 pgs a lesson… which is slow, but alright
SAO - ホープフル・チャント | L30?? - I usually do a page or two at a time. Lots of lookups, but doesn’t feel too hard otherwise (just consumes energy)
はなにあらし | L18 - got the physicals, so rereading. It’s mostly very easy. The handwriting is occasionally challenging. Haven’t gotten to the more interesting parts yet.
〆切前には百合が捗る | L29 - about to start… looks interesting, and from the parts I skimmed, the reading level is easy (L29 seems definitely too high)
声優ラジオのウラオモテ #01 夕陽とやすみは隠しきれない? | L28 - finished it. I was alternating btwn 1-1.25x the further I got. Curious to see how vol 2 will fare wrt reading speed & difficulty, since there’s no audiobook. Hopefully it will feel a bit more interesting than vol 1
I feel confident in my comprehension 98% of the time
Almost all grammar patterns are familiar
Most lookups are forgotten readings. Some are half-remembered words. Occasionally there’s new words that are reasonable
Inner monologue but not too heavy
Not overly detailed, except for that one “inaka girls discovers fancy cooking tools & makes food a full meal” scene so far
Takes effort but feels light
SAO 28
Pg 34/274 (12%)
10-20 lookups per page (tho I got away with 5 on one pg!)
Confident in comprehension about 85-90% of the time
The times I’m unconfident are much less pronounced than previous SAO volumes. I haven’t really felt lost so far
Update: actually in ch 2 I was much shakier, but I was also tired
Occasional head scratcher wrt grammar or “is this grammar or vocab? I can’t tell”
One example: 容易ならざる
〜のけたの。like: 防いでのけたの
A lot of in-world vocab I only know (or can work out) bc I read previous SAO books
Much more cerebral inner monologue, with lots of details
Feels harder to get through, but also it’s the section with the least interesting villain in the entire series, and I really wanna be in the other setting of the story rn
Ch2 flips to Alice and Fanatio, so it’s been a bit easier to get into
SAO 1
Pg 27/336 (6%)
2-18 lookups per page (usually like 6-11)
I got away with 0 on one pg!!
Vocab feels harder than SAO 28 bc of in-game terminology
It’s sooo helpful having the audiobook for 読み方
Audiobook speed gets pretty fast, and I’ve even had to slow it down sometimes
My comprehension has felt iffy sometimes, but I was reading first thing in the morning
I actually had to check the translation once b/c I missed the context switch in a new paragraph
Same with grammar feeling harder than SAO 28
The individual stories don’t have titles, the way they do in vol 2.
I’m both cases, my reading feels very steady so far. Unlike say 薬屋のひとりごと where I have to check most sentences, here I can read a whole chapter without feeling the need for a translation (not that there is one for the first two). There is one plot allusion that I’m kinda lost on rn in SAO 28. The grammar in SAO is definitely a bit more complicated than 〆切… But it’s similar to switching your bike into a lower gear, or going from easy to medium/normal in a game
I wish I wasn’t reading 3 LNs at once, but at least 〆切 will feel easy now. Also comparing SAO 1 & 28 will be interesting in its own way.
It is way too hot, and that’s making reading harder anyway in the last 12 days:
Finished books
百合姫 2024年8月号 | L24?? - I read probably 3/4 of the series in it (the others just don’t interest me). That’s the first time I’ve gotten through a whole magazine, and in a single day!
〆切前には百合が捗る | L28 - I’m really sad there isn’t a vol 3. These were perfect reading level, and enjoyable
私の百合はお仕事です! | L27 - challenging, but sooooo good (except for a recent storyline that I’m really pissed about). I ordered the physicals, and plan to reread
Finished anime
すずめの戸締まり | L27 - I watched this in English, with Japanese subtitles. That was interesting, and I could mostly keep up with it (when I could read them… Netflix doesn’t understand contrast)
私の推しは悪役令嬢。 S1 | L28 - it was decent, but challenging. The LN is hard, but I’m going to work on the manga, since it’s a YH series
ステラ・ステップ | L27?? (not into it yet, but still at the very beginning)
I’m starting to feel more comfortable with skimming lately - both in the sense that I can do it, and in the sense that I’m ok with doing it. It really helps, cuz I get bored easily, and LNs often over-explain things.
Weekly Anime
Watching ガルクラ、よるクラ、声優ラジオ、鬼滅の刃、ささ恋 without subs lately
With 声優ラジオ and 鬼滅の刃 I can check the EN subs. With the other two I rewatch with subs (tho I haven’t been doing that for よるクラ cuz the story got really upsetting. Ep 11 was ok tho). ささ恋 I’ve never used subs
I tried 終末トレインどこへいく？ S1 | L30?? which I can’t find subs for. It’s a bit too hard, and too absurd for me, but I’ll maybe give ep 2 a try.
All the weeklies (besides ささ恋) will be over in 1-2 weeks. Maybe I’ll try another ep of 転生王女と天才令嬢の魔法革命 S1 | L31 at that point
Goals:
Read, grade, and review more yuri LNs on here
Catch up on all the ongoing YH series I like, so I can know what’s going on each month
Was reading IDOL×IDOL STORY! 4巻 | L24 earlier, and found myself looking up more words than I expected… And since I’ve been highlighting words in LN in Kindle, I wanna get more concrete sense of just how difficult various manga (and levels) are for me. It’s hard to keep track of individual page lookups, since I can’t highlight, so instead I’ll be doing averages
転生王女と天才令嬢の魔法革命 1 | L28 - approx 1 word per pg (58 pgs, 53 words), frequent checking translation
Most on a single page was 5 words - which really feels like a lot
That’snnot surprising. I would rate a ln as harder than a manga that has similiar vocab and grammar because there is more text and no image context, I think… I always hesitate a bit before grading ln against manga. A lot of people grading might have felt the same
It’s hard to say, cuz what makes something hard or easy (esp comparing manga vs LN) is so asymmetrical. But I kinda feel like that sometimes too… Only sometimes tho.
I actually find LNs easier bc of that. Manga are so sparse on text. So missing something means you miss a larger proportion. Also good luck telling who the speaker is, half the time. Where I find LNs harder is: the sheer amount and variety of vocabulary, and (sometimes) the grammar.
At this point I probably only do it if it’s a really obvious comparison
Actually, I am currently reading a manga (先輩はおとこのこ 1 | L18) where I needed just 6 look-ups in the first 4 online chapters (which corresponds to about 70 pages in the print version), and it is at level 22 at the moment. So discrepancies can go either way, though I still believe, it’s rare in this direction.
I think in cases like that, it usually goes down in time. Also you might wanna mention the discrepancy in a review, if you didn’t already.
Levels are useful, but inherently flawed in that they can’t tell you why something is hard. And that “why” may make a huge difference. So I guess I’m trying to get a closer look at things like:
What should my expectations be when I pick up a L24 (or other number) book?
Why does xyz manga feel easier/harder than my expectations?
How accurate is my perception of difficulty for w/e I’m reading?
What does it mean when I say something is hard or easy?
Just how far away from being able to “just read” various things am I?
If the vol 1 preview is any indication, I’ve seen worse… Tho for 891円 on Amazon, I definitely see your point
I’m still on the fence about that story… It looks like I’d either really enjoy or really hate it. So I’ll probably wait for the anime lol
Incidentally, I’m reading through last month’s 陰キャギャルでもイキがりたい! | L29 and the first 8/16 pgs have literally no dialogue (I don’t think this is typical, it just felt very apropos)
I was not super satisfied with the story direction. Also, I watched the trailer for the anime and found it a bit offputting. I guess I was hoping they would cast a voice actor for the main character who would modulate their voice a bit to try to pass.
I just watched both trailers, and definitely see what you mean. Also Umeda, Shuuichirou sounds just similar enough to Shimazaki, Nobunaga that it’s throwing me off lol (I can generally pick out Shimazaki’s voice a mile away)
Almost done with the magazine… I have to say I’m quite surprised. The two three series that were avg 1 word per page are: 転生王女 (expected) , スピカをつかまえて (new) and 彩純ちゃんはレズ風俗に興味があります!
I was definitely not expecting the lesbian brothels chapter (that I already read last month) to have so many lookups!! The difference tho is that, unlike 転生王女, I could pretty much follow the story without a lot of those (pretty sure that’s how I read it last month)
Caught up with よるクラ manga, after feeling pretty let down by the anime. Lookups were 1 word per 3ish pgs. Comprehension was almost everything, with with a random small thing or two I don’t get. I’m considering reading the LNs… But not sure.
Finished SAO 28. It’s my least favorite SAO novel. I really skimmed a ton of it. Lookups varied btwn pages with 1-2 lookups, and pgs with 10-20. It’s making me appreciate that the next Progressive novel won’t be out anytime soon, cuz I’d really like to wait until my reading level is better.
Started 雨夜の月 1 | L23 which has a decent number of lookups, bc of hearing impairment-related words, but is overall easy to understand (I’ve checked the translation twice in 3 chapters, and one of them was unnecessary). I’ve been feeling stressed out by too many lookups in the other L28+ mangas I’m reading. So it’s nice to have an easy read with a (so far) compelling story.
I have been rereading はなにあらし, as well, tho that’s not really gripping the way this story is. 私の推しは悪役令嬢。 1 | L28 is going okay. It’s not the most exciting, since I remember the plot too much, from the anime, but the lookups are manageable. Chapters are usually 30-something pages. So it feels long, but not unbearably
I ordered this months Yurihime, Shounen Ace (has Unital Ring cover), and LaLaDx (some of the series seemed pretty interesting, and 赤髪の白雪姫 will be resuming next month!!), so I’m looking forward to those! Also most of the rest of 私の百合はお仕事です, so I can finally start my reread in the nearish future
I’m already in the middle of way too many manga, but this is free to read for the next week, so I’ll probably check it out as well. No idea if I’ll finish it before time runs out though. (Also, Amazon forces you to read these temporarily free manga in the web browser, which kind of sucks.)
Picking 五等分の花嫁 up again is soooooo nice. It feels super comfortable, and is just the sorta thing where I get totally absorbed in it. I still have to look up words that I don’t really see elsewhere, but otherwise it’s in the “I can just read it” category. At this point I’ve got my “physical items used” up to 35.4% (79% if you add digital).
anyway in the last 12 days: