Luna's Learning Log

暁のルナ · July 14, 2025, 9:08pm

Finished:

ボクキミ - perfect, I stopped SRS after a while
シムーン - comprehension better this time around
水星の魔女 - amazing and easier than I expected
トーマの心臓 | L30 - amazing, but glad it’s finally over

I decided not to put them in… the gap btwn audio-only and with EN subs is really something. My comprehension was pretty good this time around… way fewer places where I couldn’t tell what was being said, though still some lines I didn’t fully understand - plus it’s a little hard to concentrate when binging a series like this

I went through most of the 2nd half of Mercury Witch without pre-studying, and it worked out OK. I was too hooked to keep pausing and studying for the episodes, even if that would have been the most optimal approach.

I sorta feel like I cheated a bit with トーマの心臓 | L30 given how often (and quickly) I check the translation, especially for the last 2 chapters when I was really just trying to push through). Though I do feel like my comprehension was better with these final two chapters

I’m gonna try to finish 花物語上 | L38 this week - normally I’d pre-study every 2 stories, but I’m just gonna give it a go, and see how it goes without. I just wanna have it off my plate - though it’s kinda eery seeing only 2 books on my I’m Reading list rn (読書メーター has 5, but 3 of them are rereads)

As for upcoming reads… Well I just spent too much money on Simoun merch and other manga. So once it gets here, I’m planning:

Simoun (Yuri-Hime COMICS) | L24?? (already read in English)
私の推しは悪役令嬢。 | L28 - will reread from beginning, and go full in on SRS, so I can finally grab all the vocab

In theory I could finally finish the LN, and that would be less manual work to make SRS from. But I really like the manga, and I specifically wanna make reading it every month easier - and this will be more targeted vocab.

This leaves a question of what should my next novel be, once I’m done with 花物語. But I’ll leave that for the what should I read next thread

暁のルナ · July 16, 2025, 11:35am

Actually I’m gonna try treating 花物語 like a book club, and doing 1 story a week. So this week’s story is 藤 - which is 16 pgs (12 Kindle pages). That should be doable. For now I’ll try without jpdb.

I started 処刑少女の生きる道バージンロード ―そして、彼女は甦る― | L36 … which was very challenging, so I swapped it with 『人斬り』少女、公爵令嬢の護衛になる | L27 - which is pretty comfortable.

処刑少女 has a jpdb deck, but Book 1 alone is 5.6k new words!! Even if a number of those turn out to be words I already know… that’s still a ton!! It would be a great choice for pushing me out of my comfort zone - but I could read 2 easier novels in the time it would take me to read this. So I’m gonna continue the anime, and keep the jpdb deck in my set (while focusing on the Space Pirates episodes)

If I keep enjoying 人斬り then I’ll probably read all 3 volumes in quick succession, but who knows

Book clubs:

My book clubs plate is suddenly filling up

付き合ってあげてもいいかな
クラにか
イケメン王子 | L27
明日の世界で星は煌めく
乙嫁語り
Class S (hasn’t voted yet)
Visual Novel(?)
花物語 (not an actual book club)

So I’m not joining any more. Three of those are novels, and if my preferred VN club pick wins, it’s gonna be a loooooong commitment. Pushing to finish トーマの心臓 was a very good idea

Anime:

Space pirates ep 9 was kinda boring, but I like the vocab I’m getting from doing the jpdb decks, so I’ll continue this 1-2 eps approach

I dropped わたなれ for various reasons, and picked Bad Girl back up instead. I like it enough to do vocab reviews during it. 処刑少女の生きる道 S1 | L29 ep 1 was fine without subs, but I found subs for it, so I might switch

Other:

Conversation lesson went well enough… felt a bit more awkward, but also I was hungry, so wasn’t concentrating as well. I fell back on English less than last time. So it might be good to think of a backup topic or two - or else try to delve more specifically into a specific series or two. Also I should try asking more “how do you say x” questions

I’m taking a break from Reddit, for my mental health - which turns out to be very aptly timed, given a lot of unpleasant and disappointing わたなれ posts. Anyway should mean more time & energy for JP… Also I should spend more time in that JP-EN discord server

Also reminder to myself to continue with the Simoun VA radio tracks

暁のルナ · July 16, 2025, 3:06pm

Did the decks for 10-12, plus switched 処刑少女 to (frequency within deck), and most of the words are in the “words I should already know” category - which is perfect for a long-term deck & me not getting overwhelmed. Also some overlap with Space Pirates vocab, and some words I remember/half remember from Simoun, so that’s nice

eefara · July 17, 2025, 12:48am

This isn’t a nomination or anything, so I figured it’d be better to post this here: I was going through my Steam library and saw The Expression Amrilato and wanted to mention it to you 暁のルナ. I played it some time back and enjoyed it; I thought the extra bit about learning Esperanto was a great touch.

暁のルナ · July 17, 2025, 2:51am

Looks pretty interesting. Apparently has a sequel btw: https://vndb.org/v23230/ that seems really interesting. Publisher has some more VNS and ASMR stuff as well. I didn’t look at the ASMR stuff, but some of the VNs sounded kinda interesting

Thx for mentioning! I might turn off the mini games, if I do play it. But then again might be cool to learn a bit

cloverff · July 17, 2025, 3:48am

Honestly, that’s why I try to brainstorm up some conversation topics before a lesson, because if I don’t, we just end up talking about my job. And I don’t want to talk about that!

暁のルナ · July 17, 2025, 4:08am

Any suggestions? I think this sort of thing is not a strength of mine, but I’ll have to give it some thought I guess

mic · July 17, 2025, 4:17am

Things that always worked for me are e.g. talking about a book I recently started, or a movie I recently watched, or some unusual news story.

As these are things that always change it’s a never ending series of topics.

cloverff · July 17, 2025, 4:55am

Conversation topic suggestions:

Hobbies that aren’t studying Japanese. (example, I garden/knit/crochet so sometimes I’ll talk about what I’m making or how my garden is doing)
Things you’ve done recently (examples: movies I’ve seen, restaurants I’ve been to, outings with friends, etc)
Any upcoming plans (same as above except stuff you’re planning to do)
Differences between Japan and where you live, sharing famous/interesting info about where you live

In my experience, most tutors will list some interests/etc on their profile, so you can just look and see what you have in common. Also, people love talking about themselves so if you’re really stuck, just ask a question.

eefara · July 17, 2025, 10:17am

Oh, I did not know that. Neat!

暁のルナ · July 17, 2025, 12:08pm

Hmm I tune out most news, for sanity purposes… But maybe I can find some news in JP I don’t mind reading… That would be good vocab too probably

That’s a good point.

The rest of the stuff y’all mentioned are things that usually naturally come up anyway. Thx. I think I will try to give a bit more thought on the day of, into stuff I could talk about that day

yukitanuki · July 19, 2025, 7:05am

Sorry for barging into your study log like that, but I know you read 百合姫 and couldn’t think of another place to ask about this. From what I can see, all issues from コミック百合姫 2018年5月号[雑誌] to コミック百合姫 2021年12月号[雑誌] are currently on sale for 22 yen each on Bookwalker, so I was wondering if you would recommend it? I know that there are a few series in there that I really like/would love to check out but some that I will definitely skip. (Like 私に天使が舞い降りた! I would definitely skip and I hope there aren’t too many series in there that feature an age gap like that? Because if so, I probably should skip on the whole magazine.)

I wonder if the one-shots in there are good, like in the other manga magazine I read they are really good and often not published outside of the magazine, so it makes sense to go for it. Is it similar with 百合姫?

Edit: Ugh only now I realize there would’ve been a 百合 thread… I will leave the question up here for now but can move it if you think that makes more sense.

暁のルナ · July 20, 2025, 1:58am

Amazon too - thx for letting me know!! Also for that price, I’d say just buy one, and see what you think.

I’m not sure I really see the point to buying back-issues of a magazine, if you they don’t have something specific you’re looking for. I’ll probably buy a bunch, b/c I’m interested in the columns in the back, or other stuff of extremely miscellaneous historical value, and perhaps the oneshots.

There is one current series for which backlog would be useful, スピカをつかまえて 1 | L23 , b/c there was an extremely long hiatus, and some chapters haven’t made it to tankoubon yet… but even then, the chapters start in 2022 (ch 6 - 2022年9月, ch 7 - 2022年11月, ch 8 2023年3月, ch 9 2024年7月).

The only current age gap series are サボりなら保健室でどうぞ?(1) | L18 (high school student x school nurse), and the one you mentioned - which I also won’t read. Idk about back in 2018-2021. Well 小春と湊わたしのパートナーは女の子 | L23 but they’re both adults (and it’s autobiographical)

There’s generally 1-2 oneshots a month, and they vary between good - and “wow that was excellent”. Occasionally they become series outside the magazine. I’ve only been reading since 2024, but I assume this has been consistent. There was also one series in 2024 奈落の花園 that featured extremely young characters, and some really messed up stuff - but that was, but it’s the only one like that afaik (and I also skipped it).

I mean it can’t hurt to post there, but I’m fairly sure I’m the only person who reads it monthly. These are the currently running series I read, plus 私の百合はお仕事です! | L27 - which is returning next month

yukitanuki · July 20, 2025, 2:22am

Ohh thanks for the detailed response and your links, extremely useful!

But that’s exactly the reason to do it, to discover new stuff you usually wouldn’t go for. I don’t really seek out Manga on my own (I’m also bad at finding stuff that I like, I think you are really good at seeking out stuff that appeals to you, I am not ) and a few months ago realized I love discovering series through magazines, so I have a bunch of them on my wishlist to get them when they are on sale. And it doesn’t make a huge difference for me if the magazines I discover them through are old or new. Additionally, at least in Harta and Comic Beam (which I am also reading back issues from), there are some short-ish Manga that never got published outside of the Magazine and some interesting essays, readers voices, etc.

Thanks for the detailed infos in any case!

暁のルナ · July 20, 2025, 2:32am

Gotcha - yeah it can definitely be a cool way to find series. I can’t think of any series in the magazine that didn’t get a published volume (though a number are 1-3 volumes). The current columns are sort of interesting, but not that exciting, most months… but maybe different back then.

If you find anything particularly interesting (series or additional content), feel free to share. Also you probly realized already, but that sale you mentioned is for may of their series rn afaict.

Bookwalker: 百合姫の電子書籍無料試し読みならBOOK☆WALKER

Amazon: Amazon.co.jp : 百合姫 (here it’s mostly just the magazine & some of the anthologies)

yukitanuki · July 20, 2025, 5:43am

Yeah, since it’s almost always only volume 1 that is on sale (or more like, dirt cheap for 22y) it’s a bit sad if I do get into a few series, because then it’s harder to decide on which series to keep following because I have to pay full price for the following volumes. I guess if I were to buy all the magazines I at least would get a few volumes worth for several series for 22y each still

I will still think about it, either I will buy a few random Volume 1s or go for the magazines…

Btw, since we’re already on the topic, there were a two nice Yuri one shots in Harta 86, 夏のスミレ by 五十嵐純 and マコちゃんと海 by 示よう子 (FYI the 2nd one is explicit but not pornographic imho). You can see some screenshots of the one shots over at MaraVos’s summary. Maybe they are available somewhere else too. Probably not groundbreaking but I liked them (but I have limited Yuri experience)

暁のルナ · July 20, 2025, 6:36am

I mean it seems in most cases like there were a few half-priced volumes after that, for most of the series. Also fwiw magazine versions of chapters are sometimes a bit unfinished, and will get filled in or corrected, once they go to the volumes. Not necessarily a major amount (depends on the author/chapter), but maybe that’s relevant enough to make a difference.

夏のスミレ looks pretty interesting and unique. I flipped through マコちゃんと海 on Mangadex (I often flip through stuff there to preview), and it looks pretty nice as well. The cover art for Harta 86 is beautiful too!

I just bought 42 vol 1’s (Bookwalker) and all the Yurihime from 2017 through 2021 (Amazon) btw, thx to you and @shitsurei mentioning this sale. So thank you Now I just need 8 2022 vols, and 10 2023 vols, and I’ll have everything from 2017 ~~I must resist temptation, I must resist temptation…~~

yukitanuki · July 20, 2025, 7:10am

Yay!! That’s a lot. I got the Yurihimes too. I started looking through their series separately but I just hate looking through the short previews and deciding on what to get, so I just got Yurihime instead although I think technically it would’ve made more sense to just pick out a few series I feel like I’d enjoy. Anyway, not sure when I will start working through Yurihime, but I will let you know how I feel about it when I start!

Just wait until the next sale when all of 2022 and 2023 is 22 yen Although it hasn’t happened with Harta yet, which was 110 yen a issue when I first got them in 2023. But I’ve never seen a similar sale for the issues after that.

Glad it’s interesting. I remember there have been a few Yuri one shots in Harta that I really liked. I can let you know if I stumble across more if you are interested. I just read 86 which is why those two were still on my mind. And the covers are pretty much always really beautiful! (At least from volume 85 on, when they started always featuring the same cover artist)

暁のルナ · July 20, 2025, 4:28pm

Been messing around with jpdb in various ways, and prior discussions here + realizing I’m either a bit fuzzy on (or have straight up forgotten) a number of kanji, prompted me to turn off the “mark WK as known” setting. Since kanji are linked to vocab, I’m only up to 754/2707 - and it will be a while before I find out the real count. There’s definitely a number of “I know the word when I see it, but I actually don’t know the kanji itself” - meaning I’m pacing it together from context or general outline. Hopefully all this will make reading a lot easier as time goes on. And if it gets too tedious, I can just turn the “mark WK as known” setting back on.

Current stats

I only have this many decks for stats purposes. New cards are only coming from Katahane (which I’m hoping wins the VN club), and I’m trying not to overdo it.

One thing that came out of that was I realized Fate/Stay Night prologue is actually much more in-reach than most LNs I’d read… Unfortunately I later realized that I’m well past the prologue Anyway, it made me try playing for an hour or so, and it didn’t feel so bad. Don’t think I’ll stick with it rn, but still nice that I’m getting closer (tho I did skip a number of tedious sections, including info dumps)

Dropped Space Pirates bc after 12 eps, it still felt like it was in the “just give it a chance” stage… which is probably the most eps I’ve ever given an anime (except Strawberry Panic, but I was forcing myself)

処刑少女の生きる道 S1 | L29 has been fun. Definitely parts I’m missing, but when I’ve checked the fairly detailed Wikipedia episode summaries, I’ve followed the plot with probably 90% accuracy - so it’s not the biggest deal. I definitely wanna read the novels eventually.

Otherwise イケメン王子とオタクな俺: ~この気持ちの名前を教えて~ | L27 is starting, so I’m curious/anxious to see how that is (I didn’t read much of the preview). I really wanna knock some stuff off my Now Reading soon - which is part of why playing Fate rn isn’t a good idea. If I’m going for low hanging fruit, it should be 野ばらの森の乙女たち 1 | L17 then 百合姫2025年9月号 | L24?? (but I’m waiting for physical) then 『人斬り』少女、公爵令嬢の護衛になる | L27 but even then, two of those have future volumes which I’ll almost definitely wanna read. Anyway I shouldn’t think about this too hard.

Anyway, I should stop writing and get reading

shitsurei · July 20, 2025, 4:42pm

At this point, that’s how I’ve been (re) learning kanji. I started Japanese so long ago WK didn’t exist, but I’ve been through RTK 1.5 times so pretty much similar.

Like I recently realized that 露 doesn’t actually mean something to do with weather (exactly), it means exposed just because of the words it kept on come up for me like 露骨 and 露天風呂.

I’m sure it will go faster to actually study them, but I have noticed that just through reading I’ve been picking up a lot of kanji that I had at one point studied and/or have come up a lot in different words and have been able to pick out meaning without doing direct study.

Also, since I got near perfect on the kanji portion of my mock N2 test, I’ve decided to just leave it be for now since apparently that’s one of my more advanced skills according to the JLPT committee