I know you generally don’t use Bookwalker, but for the temporary free to read ones, you can read in-app as well… Also the scan quality there was a bit better (not so substantial that I’d regret reading via Amazon tho)
I tried looking at fan scans first, but the quality was noticeably worse. If I’m still really into this series after vol 2, I may hold off until I get the physicals… could go either way tho
I can relate on the “way too many manga” of course
Started 小説 夜のクラゲは泳げない | L28?? 2 (not on the site yet), and am really enjoying it. It flows very well and is an easy reading level. 0-2 lookups per page, except for a few pages where I got up to 6. It says L28?? but I’m guessing it’s more like L24-26? This is probably the easiest light novel I’ve read, and unlike SAO 28, it has mostly short-medium sentences rather than super dense paragraphs. So it’s a much needed relief!
SAO 28
よるクラ
Finished 雨夜の月 2 | L23 and I loved it sooooo much. I love that there’s a hint of darkness under the surface, and also that it’s not so simplistic. And the author really did their homework afaict.
Definitely checking the translation more than I was at first (hot weather is partially to blame). I ended up ordering the rest of the series plus 熱帯魚は雪に焦がれる | L24 (which was absurdly cheap) off Amazon JP, and deducting it from my July budget (which I really need to stop doing). Shipping takes forever, but I’ve got plenty to read in the meantime.
Getting through 私の推しは悪役令嬢。 1 | L28 was such a challenge, with all the lookups! I’ve been thinking about why, and I think it’s b/c many are totally unfamiliar lookups (as opposed to things I sort of know, or can guess from context or kanji).
I couldn’t seem to get through more than 1.5 chapters in one sitting… which is frustrating. Part of it is that the story is still in the early stages. I’m skipping to book 6, since that’s after the anime.
This is making me consider that L27-30 manga are still a challenge for me in a way that something L24-26 are not. I’m thinking that means I need to push myself to read more at this level, even tho it feels less efficient.
Looking at various L27-30 manga:
Some observations:
I kind of want to pick up Prisma Ilya again, with this in mind, but maybe I should finish 月姫 first
I finished ガールズバンドクライ S1 | L24 13, and it was my least favorite episode in the whole season (the rest of the show was so incredible tho). I watched it twice w/o subs, and my comprehension was much better the second time around.
Finished Fate/kaleid liner プリズマ☆イリヤ ドライ! ! -2 | L27 - goes back and forth btwn feeling easy, mildly bewildering, and “I could never get this without the translation”. Sometimes I have to really think carefully about the grammar and context, and be careful about identifying unfamiliar phrases, like 成れの果て “the mere shadow of one’s former self”. My reading speed definitely feels a lot faster than it used to. And even though comprehension is hard, the experience of reading itself doesn’t feel hard.
I don’t think I’ll jump into the next volume just yet. While it does progress me towards long term goals, it’s not really helpful for anything I’m planning to read in the near future.
ネトゲの嫁は女の子じゃないと思った？ S1 | L22 - I’m watching with subs, mostly without stopping, and can get most of it… I should do lookups, but haven’t been in the mood
はなにあらし | L18 - no translation. Still some lookups, and occasionally I won’t quite get a sentence, but overall very easy level. It’s good break from the harder stuff.
小説 夜のクラゲは泳げない 2 | L28?? - continues to be good. Another 23 pgs till I’m caught up with where I started (in the middle). Then I can start the second chapter 
thinking of ordering the physical…
The 2024 goals thread motivated me to start 転生王女と天才令嬢の魔法革命 | L33 with audiobook (sry @seanblue).
Ch 1 was relatively easy, with anywhere from 5-18 lookups per page (usually around 7-10, probably). I know the next chapter or two will get harder, cuz of magic and other vocab. The audiobook is surely easing some of the burden - tho I just have to be careful not to space out 
The narration is excellent, and the story is way more interesting with the characters inner monologue.
Dropping the manga, but will try to watch the anime ahead of what I’m reading. Trying not to overthink about how many things I’m reading. Dropped 平良深姉妹はどっちもヤんでる: 1【イラスト特典付】 | L24?? for now, and I’d like to finish 真月譚 月姫 8 | L19 (3 Vols left) to keep things tidy. That will have me down to 4 active reads 1-2 for lessons (Bocchi and 堀さんと宮村くん).
I’ll be done with Bocchi 3 in my lesson tomorrow, and I think I’ll switch to reading/translatingトゲナシトゲアリ lyrics. I feel like I can just check fan translations for Bocchi at this point. Whereas lyrics require creative interpretation, and I think it will help me cover random grammar that I’m loose on… Tho those have official translations tho (if you extract from YouTube subs), so maybe I should pick something else. Maybe I’ll make a poll…
That was fast.
In that case I look forward to hearing your review later.
Started rewatching ガルクラ with subs, to see what I missed (story and language… I watched half with subs, and half audio only b4 bc I have no patience). Frustrated that there’s still stuff I’m not quite getting right/automatically getting. Tho I think some of it may just be that I’m feeling crappy today. Otoh there’s a lot that I am getting. I’m wishing I could watch it without subs tho, so I could pay better attention in general.
Started 裏世界ピクニック | L33 in my lesson tonight. Only got 2 pgs in. It’s really hard so far. I may purchase the translation to check after lessons, b/c even with my teacher explaining things, I’m not confident I’m understanding 100%. Maybe I’ll check out the audiobook too?
Also working on learning/understanding more トゲトゲ lyrics… which is a bit overdue, for how obsessed I am with this show/band lol
Got some new books and the ガルクラ Blu-ray to keep myself busy with: Physical Media Megathread - #470 by 暁のルナ
Physical finished/reading:
百合姫 January was one of the shorter ones, and I had read a good amount of it. So not too hard. There’s about 3 series I need to catch up with, to properly read it. May try to do that before starting February.
わたゆり is going a lot better this time around. Not perfectly, but much better. Memory is definitely helping, but even aside from that I’d say it’s an improvement. It’s interesting how things I was critical of the first time around, no longer stand out to me… Will have to keep that in mind when writing reviews, I suppose.
It makes me wonder how I’ll do with 赤髪の白雪姫 next time I pick it up…
ガルクラ commentary - I understood it pretty well, tho occasionally couldn’t make out what they were saying (sometimes the audio mix/headphones fault).
転生王女 is going decently, I’m in the middle of Ch 1 (the second chapter). Not stopping for lookups too much, since I’m in the beginning, which the anime and manga covered, still. I’ll probably stop more in the future tho. Part of the challenge is just seeing if I can process the meaning of the words quickly enough. The narration is on the fast side, in a perfect way
Upcoming:
Ordered the よるクラ and 転生王女 LNs, so that will be nice when they arrive. I’m trying to use physical media as much as possible (since I keep buying it ), so it aligns well. I really wish there were GBC manga or LNs. I’d literally drop everything else to read them 笑
They just released SAO 2 audiobook. So maybe I’ll pick them back up again when SAO 4 is out
わたゆり: Finished my reread of わたゆり it definitely went a lot better than last time, but I still feel like I was turning the translation a bit too easily, rather than forcing myself to pause and struggle a bit first. It’s hard not to turn to it, when I’m this into the story, and also trying to finish within a certain time span. I did try to use my 電子辞書 at one point, but found it way too disruptive/unproductive.
It was really nice to read the physicals - so much less distracting. Also I read the magazine versions for the most recent chapters, so that was really nice I think/hope there’s a new chapter out this month!
雨でも晴れでも: Read ch 1 of 雨でも晴れでも - definitely no translation for that. I can read it easily enough, but it doesn’t feel comfortable yet. More lookups than I expected. Kansai-ben is easy this time.
I’ll probably resume はなにあらし, now that I finished わたゆり… Tho maybe I should focus on 月姫 first
Audio-only: Been watching more audio-only lately (mostly summer 2024 shows that don’t have subs yet):
PTW (with subs):
Switched 義妹生活 to subs - definitely a good decision. Even still there was stuff that was tricky
わたおし has been going a lot better than expected. Even with pages where I have 20 lookups, it never really feels overwhelming, and is pretty easy overall. And I’m definitely getting good vocab reinforcement. I’m only 13% through tho
Watched 詩季織々 | L27 with EN audio, but JP subs, with my mom. The first story was a little tricky to read the subs fast enough, but the other 2 I got fine. Was a bit sad, but I liked it overall
Did really well with 堀さんと宮村くん in my lesson this week. Maybe I just got lucky, and it was just an easier portion than the others? But I felt like it wasn’t as hard to decipher the handwriting this time
雨夜の月 | L23 I’ve been able to get through a lot without checking translation, but still have moments. It’s better than when I started tho
In the middle of Yurihime February rn. Making good progress, when I decide to pick it up. Not in any huge rush. Apparently this month won’t have ささ恋 or わたゆり, so I don’t mind waiting for it to ship with the rest of my cdjapan order at the end of the month. I’ve banned myself from buying any digital books for July and August, bc I’ve been ordering so much physical stuff lately (like 90% ガルクラ and トゲトゲ)
As an aside, I canceled my Crunchyroll subscription after they suddenly removed all user comments and reviews this week. Which is making watching things a bit more inconvenient, and means I’ll have to seek shows out more manually in the future… but not the end of the world. Guess I’ll use Netflix more - tho the contrast on their subs is often terrible… So may resort to other methods as well
Did they provide a reason? Was it a bug?
Acc tothis comment a few series - senpai otokono, tasogare, and maybe one more - got bombed with hateful comments*. Advertisers got wind & told them they had 72 hrs to remove the comments and ban the users. Their solution apparently was to just remove comments and reviews for the entire site, with no notice.
Their “reason” was “blah, blah, blah safer and higher quality environment for all our users” - https://help.crunchyroll.com/hc/en-us/articles/28154006791188-Why-is-Crunchyroll-Disabling-Comments - which is obvious bs. They just don’t wanna lose advertiser dollars, and I guess didn’t wanna bother with moderation
That was such a huge part of what made their platform worth using in the first place (not to mention years of user contributions). Ironic that they call removing their most distinguishing feature making it higher quality.
*I know you’ve mentioned not trusting Reddit comments as sources, but this one seems very plausible. Even if it turned out to be false, it wouldn’t make much difference in my opinion of the removal either way.
Sorry, this post has been removed by the moderators of r/Crunchyroll.
Well, I’ll take your word for it, then.
(Good) moderation costs money too. In an extremely shortsighted way, their approach makes sense. As you said, though, it’s going to bite them in the ass sooner rather than later.
I really liked the tasogare manga. I didn’t know there was an anime (might be a different series altogether though). It makes me sad to think people would organize to post hate comments about it (not that I am surprised it would happen, but still).
Edit: I was talking about しまなみ誰そ彼 but I can’t find an anime, so it’s probably not the same.
Sry I meant this comment: https://www.reddit.com/r/Crunchyroll/s/5bRezIGKsZ
This tasogare: Tasogare Out Focus (Twilight Out of Focus) - MyAnimeList.net
Honestly I’m pretty surprised by it. While I’ve seen the occasional idiotic comment here and there, their comments sections and reviews are generally very civil. That said, I do think a genre filter would be a great idea in general.
It makes me sad too tho
As someone who used to work for somewhere that had a lot of Reddit discourse, I know that similar companies tend to have a lot of official presence there, even if there’s not a lot of official posting. So I would be surprised if too many full on conspiracies would be able to boil up in r/Crunchyroll.
2024年7月18日
Difficulty of current activities
I’m joining the audio listening challenge in August, but btwn that and trying more anime without subs, it’s been making me self-conscious of my audio comprehension… Some of it is recognition, but some is just needing more vocab. Part of that is also still needing to acquire more vocab (it never ends lol)
To the extent that I stay focused when listening to something, I always ask myself “how would I explain/summarize what I just listened to someone?” If I can’t do it, that’s a sign that I’m not really fully following whatever it is
Next YH series to catch up with:
My manga have almost all straightened out now, thx to the dehumidifier… In fact some of them look better than they did before summer!!
Gotten the bookshelves to a somewhat prettier state. Waiting for some display stands to come in, so I can move all the トゲトゲ stuff to its own table. Settled on this for now:
A list of Yurihime 2024 series I’m working on catching up with… there will probly be more when I get to Mar 2024
| Series Name | Ch | Min | Mon | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| アンドロイドは経験人数に入りますか?? | L21 | 0 | 21 | ２月 | |
| https://learnnatively.com/series/d5c386e5c8/ | 0 | 204 | １月 | Lowest priority |
| 大室家 | L18 | 0 | 104 | １月 | ゆるゆり spinoff |
Caught up:
| Series Name | Min | Mon | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| しかばね少女と愛が重い聖騎士の討伐学園ライフ 1 | L22 | 5 | １月 | |
| ギャルメイドと悪役令嬢 ~おじょーさまのハッピーエンドしか勝たん!~(1) | L24?? | 1 | １月 | Ichijin plus[1] |
| ぜんぶ壊して地獄で愛して(1) | L22 | 8 | １月 | |
| 小春と湊 わたしのパートナーは女の子 | L23 | 14 | １月 | |
| 踊り場にスカートが鳴る | L22 | 21 | ２月 | |
| スピカをつかまえて 1 | L23 | 9 | ７月 | 6-8 in 2022/2023[2] |
Making decent progress on 百合姫2024年3月号 | L25 - it helps that I’ve already read a lot of it recently, from catching up on various series. Gonna catch up with 小春と湊 next, it’s short and easy
Did better with 義妹生活 S1 | L25?? this week, though the last 1/4 of it had a lot of sentences I needed to check or double-check
Started playing Star Rail over the weekend, and that’s a nice challenge. Story is interesting enough, and I feel like I’m in the right mindset to encounter all the sci-fi vocab. Tho also I’m genuinely wondering if I should make an Anki deck for it, bc of the amount of unfamiliar vocab. A lot of the sentences are i+2 or 3, so I’m not really absorbing the sci-fi vocab well yet. Reading all the game mechanics stuff is challenging, but achievable… I’m just trying to take it in small doses, and take my time with it. (Tbh I’d still be confused about some of this stuff, even if I was reading in English, cuz it’s vast)
Reflecting in general lately, I feel like I’m a lot more comfortable just diving into untranslated material than I used to be. Also I feel like more of my translation checks are double checks, rather than “I don’t get it” checks (サルビアのブーケ(上) | L24?? is a notable exception rn, cuz abstract magic theory 
). That’s not to say my comprehension is always reliable, but it feels less intimidating/like less or a conscious effort to jump into something new.
I also feel like I’m starting to develop more stamina for hard material (as long as it’s not like 薬屋のひとりごと hard ). Not that it’s easy, but I don’t necessarily feel so overloaded by it.
When you say translation checks, do you do side by side comparisons?
I think that could be quite insightful especially for those more liberal translations…
If I understand what you mean, then yes side by side comparison is what I mean. I only look at the translated version for the specific part I’m stuck on/want to confirm. Basically: read JP sentence, look up words & puzzle out meaning, if confused then look at translation, reread to understand without translation.
I try to do that only after looking up words and puzzling it out; and I try to go a sentence or two ahead, before doing it. Otherwise I think it’s kind of short-circuiting the comprehension process.
