Finished ささ恋 reread all the way through the latest chapters!! Loved it. It was very interesting, I walked away with a pretty different impression of Himari this time. She’s definitely kinda 鈍感 on a lot of things, but she’s also really cunning/crafty too, when she’s trying to get stuff (in a good way). Also my perception of Himari’s actions during the Shiho arc was a lot more neutral this time around, rather than projecting my emotional frustration into how I saw it. I’m still really impressed by Yori’s emotional maturity through all of that. I still think Shiho is kind of unbelievable/messily written, but is also a really powerful force, as far as the plot goes. I feel like my comprehension improved as I kept reading. Maybe next time I read it, I won’t need to check a translation?
ささ恋 アニメ
Watching the anime has been interesting… having just read the manga definitely helped with comprehension (occasional unfamiliar vocab words), tho it’s overall easy language. There’s a lot of stuff that lands really well, but it’s not quite hitting that peak for me yet. I think some of it is b/c the voices are just so different from how I imagine them reading the manga. But also the moment-to-moment pacing feels so different. Like in the manga everything feels very fast-paced, but with the anime it all feels a bit slower (they’re doing about 2 eps per vol right now, so the overall pacing is good still). Also sometimes the BGM is also not what I’d expect (but not necessarily bad). Overall I’m really enjoying it though, and already excitedly looking forward to next week’s! It seems to be getting pretty good reactions. Tho I wish ppl would stop referencing 俺ガイル wrt the characters - it makes no sense. I at least get the やがて君になる comparisons… if anything, the character designs there have some similarity, and the story does have some superficial similarity or inspiration (though they’re very different).
赤髪の白雪姫
I started reading 赤髪の白雪姫1 | L26, and to my surprise my comprehension is terrible. Even accounting for author style, setting, unknown vocab, etc, I’m just doing a really poor job with grammar and context/speaker identification… which has me really interested in the series!! I like it story-wise too… it feels very moderate so far, and the MC is really enjoyable - very balanced and brave, not OP, not helpless; the dynamic she has with the male lead is excellent… again very level and equal (despite very different social statuses). Tho I was very confused for half a chapter, cuz I mistakenly thought they were a couple already (I’m assuming they are eventually). Since I only own vol 1, I might pause until I have the rest… tho the fan-scans are decent quality, so maybe I’ll continue. I should get back to the other stuff I’m reading tho.
文法 with Bunpro
I’ve been trying to do more Bunpro, and it’s definitely slowly helping (I ran into a few things I had learned, while reading Frieren). It’s amazing how bad I am at output (also at register switching), though I see whatever small improvements I make there as a bonus. Anyway I feel like a lot of my misattribution mistakes or “not quite confident” moments when reading manga are due to weak grammar. Most of my reviews are in the N3 deck, but I grabbed a few from N4 that I thought could use reinforcement, and added a few from N2 that seemed relevant. I had to stop myself from adding too many new ones lol. I do it in a sort of “cheating” way, in the sense that I mark things right, regardless, so I don’t have unnecessary repetition. Also turned off ghost reviews. That’s enough basic repetition. At least for now the point is that I’ll recognize something if I see it in the wild. Otoh, if I find unfamiliar grammar, I’ll probly see if it’s in one of the decks, and add it (if I remember). I’m a bit over halfway through the N3 deck (though a lot is stuff I already knew, and just marked as Mastered).
Still doing the Anki reviews for names as well. That takes all of 5-10 minutes thankfully
気になってる人が男じゃなかった | L22 - loved it! Was disoriented at first b/c I forgot it was 4-page chapters. Otherwise an easy-ish read. Occasionally I’d be confused, and sometimes the handwriting was a bit tricky to work out. Working on catching up w/ the latest chapters on the author’s twitter. Wouldn’t mind reading a second time, tho I wanna get to 君に紡ぐ傍白 | L21 and やがて君になる | L23 rereads first
赤髪の白雪姫1 | L26 - found this surprisingly hard, but unique and enjoyable. Anime is easier (less ambiguous wrt context, setting, speaker, etc). Afaik it’s a romance, but it’s more a story of friendship so far.
ぼっち・ざ・ろっく! 2 | L28 - read this aloud a lot more smoothly than last time, but still not real time. It’s great getting to add in character inflections more, getting the cadence right, etc, as I’m reading. If I ever get to a point where my reading is actually smooth, I’ll ask my teacher to correct my intonation (pitch accent), but that’s a while off.
SAO 3
Very close to done w/ SAO 3 (p. 283/312 not counting あとがき). It’s been nice overall, but also since about 60-70% through, it felt a bit more draggy, and I started skimming a bit, then shifted to more extensive reading. The main drag for me is the battles, b/c my reading speed is so slow (plus lookups). Particularly since the anime version is engraved in my mind, I end up replaying it in my head over and over. But even the ones that don’t have an anime adaptation, I always get tired during the battles. To be clear, it’s not the writing that’s draggy in this case - just my mood.
Anyway, I switched to more extensive reading, but also realized I could just Google Lens → Akebi the whole pg at once, and that’s really helped (rather than having to look everything up individually). I’ve been reading almost exclusively physical since then, and that’s definitely been nice. I’m definitely taking a break before I read the next one. Want to come back with a higher vocab, and it will free up more space to work through everything else. Overall it’s been a very positive experience though. This has been worlds easier than when I was reading SAOP 1 and SAO 2 back in December (just 4 months ago!!).
本を買うのは禁止！
I went way over budget with books this month, and at this point I have a pretty solid collection that I’m only 31% through (72% if you count “already read digital”). So I’m not buying anything during May, and will use the month to really get my “physical books used” percentage up.
Especially if I got through all the romances (やが君, Monologue, 五等分の花嫁, アオのハコ) and the SAO manga, that would bump up by 13-14%. Idk that I’ll actually do it like that, but at the very least I do plan on やが君 and Monologue soon; probably ルリドラゴン too. I can probly get through YagaKimi in a day (two at most), and same for Monologue (it’s only 3 volumes and L21). It might be a good idea to finally read the SAO side stories that I have… they’re all shorter than an actual SAO chapter. Maybe I’ll just try the エイジ one.
Anyway, I’ll still read some stuff digitally of course, but it will have to be stuff I already own (probly more numerous than my physical library tbh) or that I can access on Tachiyomi. I feel bad getting stuff via Tachiyomi, but at least a lot of it I’ll buy eventually… and almost everything I buy is secondhand anyway.
One downside to this approach is that I’m not gonna be able to log almost any of that on Natively (rereads)… but I’ll still be logging Tsukihime and Tsubasa (and anything digital) at least, anyway.
Re-reads are on the eventual feature list, at least. I’ve been keeping track of my re-reads via private notes and a custom tag in my library for the moment, so I can triumphantly add them in later.
Yeah I’ve been too lazy to so far, and figured I’ll just wait till it’s implemented… but maybe I should? It’s still not the same sense of accomplishment/growth as “completed new book” for me though.
True… tho that’s a metric I don’t really care about personally. (Not all pages are made equal, esp when you’re taking digital vs physical, manga vs novel, etc, into account).
What I think it would be most useful for tho is tracking reading speed improvement, since you (hopefully) can compare the same books or sections.
On the other hand, rereading is probably even better for studying than reading, since you are reviewing things you’ve seen before, hopefully moving them closer to being a long term memory rather than a short term memory!
This is such a good idea! I know I should read out loud more, but I find it distracting to do on the first read-through. But rereading out loud could work for me!
That can certainly be true! It’s one reason why I like to read manga or novels after watching the anime. I don’t think I’ll gain much from やが君 specifically (read it over a year ago, and it was relatively easy then). アオのハコ or ルリドラゴン on the other hand… Also I know 君に紡ぐ傍白 | L21 has some vocab I never quite absorbed (like the title 笑)
There’s also reading within a series. Keeps things fresh, but still has some of the same reinforcement benefits. (and to a lesser extent, reading within a genre).
Natural consequence of reading during lessons lol… It’s definitely helpful - cool way to combine input & output. On my own, I’m on and off with it, cuz it gets tiring… I probly don’t do it most of the time? (it’s unconscious either way). I do say lookups out loud, and reread their sentences if I can though. If it’s more than 2 unfamiliar words in a sentence, I probly won’t do that (too disruptive).
Read through やが君 vol 1 late last night, and it was pretty easy
Also played a bit of FGO’s 魔法使いの夜 collab, which I lazy-read. I sorta wanna play through the whole thing, but don’t have the time. May eventually watch on YouTube, and it’s got me even more interested in playing the 魔法使いの夜 VN now (gonna try to get through 月姫 before that though).
Also discovered there’s an 衛宮ご飯 Switch game… which I’m exercising great restraint in not buying. I do want to get it eventually, since it’s a good combo of my interests (JP + cooking). Maybe I should rewatch the anime sometime. I think I’d get bored w/ the manga version, but who knows
ソードアート・オンライン3 フェアリィ・ダンス | L34 - Will definitely wait b4 reading the next volume (vocabulary)… SAO 28 comes out June 6th, so that’s probly what I’ll do next
ツバサ | L25 18-19 - I’m check the translation a lot for this… also, the end of vol 19: what did I just read?!? Seriously so confused, but that’s CLAMP for you lol
やがて君になる | L23 (reread) - checked translation 6 times in 8 volumes - not bad. I guess it did reinforce some stuff. I wasn’t really reading the last volume as carefully, since I stayed up all night Torn between Yuu and Sayaka for favorite character. Really not a fan of Touko, though I can appreciate the ending.
はなにあらし 1 | L17 (reread) - went well, no translation checking. Handwriting was a bit hard a few times (partially a digital problem I think)
Watched ep 3 of ささ恋 as well. Pretty much still feel the same - solid 4/5. I hope the ppl who feel like it’s a poor copy of やが君 will hang around another episode or two, cuz the stories really have nothing in common, and each have their own strengths & weaknesses
Discovered https://www.onsen.ag/ - which is a site with a bunch of 声優ラジオ shows, including ひまりと依の“ささやき”ラジオ. I can never seem to 100% focus on those sorta things, but it makes for good background listening, and my comprehension was pretty decent. They have programs for various shows I wanna watch. So I guess I’ll get to eventually enjoy those.
So much for not buying things… I got 夢現Re:Master cuz it was 60% off on Steam, and almost everything I’ve read about it seems like I’d like it (I watched a bit of a YouTube playthrough too). I’m 1hr 40 min in, and on the fence about whether it’s gonna be worth playing. The fact that it’s set in a game dev office (they’re developing a VN lol) makes it appealing… but so far it’s been done in a pretty ridiculous/unbelievable manner. Anyway, based on playthrough vid, I think it will be worth it, and I can always just skim annoying parts.
Vocab-wise, it’s at a decent level for me. I can read a lot of it, but some screens (max 3 lines of text) there will be 2-4 words to look up… some of which I should know, or which are compound words I can semi-figure out. So it’s useful in that sense
Also really debating whether to get 魔法使いの夜, since it’s half off… but I’ll probly hold back, b/c I can potentially buy a used copy of the limited edition, and I really need to not buy things until June. It’s not like I have any shortage of games to play in the first place.
Out of curiosity how do you look up unknown words in manga? I’ve stuck to LN’s because yomichan makes it quick and easy but there are a couple manga on my list to read.
If it has furigana (or kanji I know the readings for), I’ll type it into a dictionary. Otherwise I take a pic, run it through Google lens, and paste into Akebi (android dictionary app).
You can also use mokuro + Yomichan, but I generally prefer to read manga physically or on my tablet, and also am not gonna sit around and wait for the pre-processing. It’s more useful for LNs, but even then Google Lens → Akebi is more convenient for me, bc of the way Akebi lets you see multiple things at once… Tho you sometimes have to take things with a grain of salt:
Whoops, I failed at not buying physical books, already. Ended up buying 赤髪の白雪姫 | L26 1-25 (out of 27), cuz there was a really good deal on it. I finished the anime, and am currently on vol 4. Still having some trouble with the language, but slowly getting better at it. I’m 100% sure I’m gonna wanna reread it, both for story and language purposes.
I have seen reviews that said the story feels dragged out over time, but considering how much I enjoy the characters, I have the feeling that the things ppl feel are dragged out won’t bother me. Guess I’ll see when I get there. But either way, I’m committed to reading the whole thing now that I’ve ordered it
I got past the where the anime ends in 赤髪の白雪姫, and the story is soooooooo good (just finished vol 9)
I’m gonna try to slow down my reading a bit, so I can read more carefully, and process things more. Also cuz I wanna read as much of it in physical as possible, and those won’t get here for another week or two.
Also realized I need to catch up on 薬屋のひとりごと reading for this week
Yeaahhhh so much for that. I zoomed through the whole thing, very extensively (and encountered the limits of that). It’s interesting how much of a difference there is between stopping to look up words vs just glancing at the translation to piece together the meaning. It makes me appreciate the former more.
To be fair, I got so obsessed with this series that I was not getting enough sleep, and I think that really affected my vocab retention and initial comprehension. Probly like 95% or more of sentences that I checked, I could look back at the Japanese and go “oh that makes sense”.
Anyway, I’m dying to reread it once the physicals get here, and will go through it intensively this time, since I’m not in a rush for the story now. It feels like I’m starting to “get” new grammar patterns, or reinforce things I should know already. That’s also helping me with speaker identification. I’m thinking about doing the jpdb deck for it as well.
Anyway it’s absolutely my 2nd fav shoujo!! AkaYona still holds first place, but reading this felt really similar to when I first read AkaYona, and I love both of them for similar reasons (though they’re quite different stories)
I binge read AnY after watching the anime (will it ever be continued ), used to read the fan trans as soon it came out
Kinda fell off somewhere around the Xing arc waiting for the next chapters (I think I would have to properly re-read from the Lili arc I think). Maybe l wait a lil bit though until my Japanese gets better so it doesn’t feel like punishing myself😭
Probly not but they do regularly make drama CDs for a lot of the chapters, with the VAs from the anime. You can find vids of them with the matching panels on niconico or YouTube
Probly a good idea… It was actually my first native manga series (after I had pleasurably tortured myself through 2 LNs)… Took me 2.5 months to get through 39 volumes. Not long afterwards I started transitioning (mostly) to much easier yuri and romance titles for a while lol.
I’m in a book club that reads a chapter a week out loud (sometimes we strugglate afterwards, but we’re a bit lazy about that now). I still can’t automatically understand everything. The grammar isn’t a 迷路 anymore, but there’s still sooooo much vocab. I do plan to reread the whole thing at some point tho.
It does/will give you a nice high “total pages read” count, at least.
Torn between Yuu and Sayaka for favorite character. Really not a fan of Touko, though I can appreciate the ending.
but they do regularly make drama CDs for a lot of the chapters, with the VAs from the anime. You can find vids of them with the matching panels on niconico or YouTube