Finally finished book 4
Really enjoyed that last chapter though there are parts I will need to re-read later down the line.
Was not expecting Beniko to pop up and things to play out like they did at the end of that last chapter.
I am excited to see what happens next but it’s after midnight here so will start reading book 5 tomorrow.
I really enjoyed the end of Book 4 as well and loved the surprise ending, too! I collated comments for that volume here if you want to browse them (but maybe not if you want to avoid spoilers as I wrote more than normal to remind myself as I am starting to find I’m forgetting stuff, so part of my notes here are just to remind myself of what happened when I look back!)
I guess I better get going again with Book 5, I paused at Ch 3!
I just finished book 3 in a bit of a rush since my storytel subscription (for the audiobook verision) is expiring today. Copy-pasting my review here:
Story
I liked the first story (dad saves daughter from nightmares) and the last story (girl saves sister from becoming a mummy due to over-dieting) the best. The grandma trying to get rid of her wrinkles and the girl annoying about having to talk to her friends on her cell phone all the time weren’t bad either.
I didn’t care for the story with the classmates’ wishes cancelling each other out. The sibling story was fine, although I didn’t love the inconclusive ending. The prologue and epilogue also started to build some of the lore around the shop and others like it, which was interesting to see.
Overall, this wasn’t a bad volume, although I preferred the previous volume. 3.5 stars, rounded up.
Korean Language
This felt a bit easier, probably since I’m used to the author’s writing style and some of the commonly used vocabulary by now. However, the last story felt a bit more difficult for some reason. I read along with the audiobook, which was definitely helpful for practicing correction pronunciation and getting context clues.
I did have a read of your link. I don’t mind spoilers as I’m still going to re-read these anyway and I think it will be one of those series I’ll revisit umpteen times.
This series is my new litmus test for how well I’m progressing based on how much I understand without looking stuff up and how much of the grammar is understandable for me that I maybe didn’t notice previously.
I’m loving how different each chapter has been and the additional world building aspects as well as the overarching story that’s in place.
@NihongoLearner19 I also liked Books 1-2 better than Bk 3. I had similar opinions on the stories, actually, I really enjoyed the mummy one as well, definitely my favourite. And this was the point where I started enjoying the world building a lot as well (prologue/epilogue). If you enjoy that, then definitely read book 4!
The Japanese audiobooks are really well done (I hope that holds for the Korean ones, too). I haven’t listened to very many audiobooks (as in, other series), but now that I am testing out audiobooks in other books/series, I appreciate how well these are done. In some others, I can hear when the reader paused and came back. Their voice quality and volume changes enough to be a little distracting. Whereas the Zenitendo audiobooks feel super immersive to me.
I think I’ll copy you on this if I continue to enjoy all the way through #6 (the last one I currently own)!
Me, too! This is where this series has totally won my heart and I don’t mind if I’m a bit disappointed by a story now and then.
On my part: I’ve taken a little hiatus since I just started a harder book club, but this weekend I’ll probably continue the 3rd story of Bk 5.
I second this. I’ve been using the audiobooks both as a listening exercise and sometimes alongside trying to read the book as well. The voices are well done and I can see where separate characters are talking (each voice is a little different) even if I got a little confused when reading and the Japanese ones she uses the same voice for a character throughout the series (E.g Beniko always has the same voice).
I’ll be going back to reading a chapter every few days once I’m back at work but may need to slow down a bit since I think I’ll be catching up a bit at work.
So I didn’t quite manage to start reading a chapter every few days again when I said I would so it’s taken me a while to get about 2/3 of the way through book 5.
I liked chapter 3, バーチャルバッジ。Was not expecting Beniko to pop up like she did or to appear in a gaming Cafe when the MC went back to real life.
Chapter 4 暗がりの男 Was not what I was expecting, similar to the epilogue and prologue sections with some world building.
Nothing major but there is one thing that I’m not too struck on in this book and I’ve a feeling it will be a feature going forwards as well, the missing name, sweet info and coin info at the end of each chapter. I know it’s just a small thing but I actually liked reading it and also it helped if I was struggling to figure out the characters name 
.
Still got chapter 5, 6 and the epilogue to read through and I’m still enjoying reading these overall.
I’m at almost exactly the same place as you. I’m still reading Chapter 4. Even though it’s so short it’s slow going because like you said it’s more like the epilogue and prologue sections and I don’t often take the time to do lookups on this series so it kinda stopped me in my tracks.
If it makes you feel better, I think this is temporary and just for this volume. It’s missing because since these sweets were stolen and distributed maliciously, they weren’t technically customers of Beniko. So it kind of adds to that aspect of these stories. But I agree, it did surprise me when it wasn’t there!
Ah, ok. I wasn’t sure if it was for effect or a trend now going forwards. I should look at the next one in the series but didn’t want to spoil anything
My reading has slowed down a bit and I think that’s because I was focusing on textbooks but starting to get overwhelmed again. I’ve only been reading this at work and not at home for the moment.
Popup for the movie spotted by @DIO-Berry !
That is so fun 
thanks for posting!!
OK, so that was sooooo tough I’m going to put in a breakdown of what I understood and if someone else reads it, let me know if your had a different interpretation! I suspect we’ll get enlightened later anyway…
What was tough for me was the lack of subjects and names, and since Japanese freewheels between past and present tenses it was hard to get clues as to what the heck was going on in this mysterious scene
This is from the perspective of the guy (男) who sold the drink out of the cooler to the girl in ch 2. There are three characters, the man, his adversary (dream), his friend, and their shared adversary (which I believe is the same as in the dream).
Then I pieced the following together (who is who) after reading it twice
First he wakes up from a bad dream (I think his nightmare features Beniko). It seems the person he was dreaming about might cause him to go back to prison. Then he reflects on his friend who helped him get out of prison in exchange for getting revenge on someone. I’m assuming the friend is Yodomi, and their shared adversary is Beniko since he broke into the vending machines. So Yodomi is spreading out the capsules he stole and he’s selling the drinks. Based on the whole picture, I wonder if the man is the beautician.
However, you picked up on one of the characters that I was unsure who they could be (I didn’t know who the man was but now I think back, that is the only person I think that’s gone to jail).
I only really figured out the friend and mutual enemy after reading the remaining chapters when I realised what was being talked about in Chapter 4.
I’ve been a bit slow on the uptake after getting back into it the last few days. I kind of want to go back and re-read everything intensively from the start, but at the same time feel like I don’t currently have the mental energy to do so without burning out again 
That’s nice to hear, thanks for confirming!
I also want to go back to reread these, but probably later and with the audiobook. I don’t think I’ll reread all of them intensively (or at least I wouldn’t plan it like that). I tend to pick just one thing at a time to read intensively depending on my energy and what I think I need most at that time, which seems to change quickly.
For this series, my plan is to finish book 5 (just the last chapter and epilogue to go), then I’ll get caught up on some clubs before starting book 6, which I already own.
I haven’t decided if I’ll go on to book 7. I’m toying with the idea of getting it as an audiobook first, which would kinda force me to attempt listening without the paperback to check things, which would be interesting. In any case, before ordering any physical books, I’m planning to get through more of my backlog of 積読 physical books, but at some point if I run out of books to read in bed on the weekend or I don’t manage to find something with a bit more kanji that is that easy to enjoy extensively like that, then I’ll probably keep ordering these 1-2 at a time as long as I enjoy them. Or if the audiobook experience is fun, I might continue with that. I have the guidebook to check key words and details up to volume 15 or so.
Cool, that makes sense 
I already have the full set (physical and audiobook) plus the new series, what there is of it. I also have the guide book and the Manekineko book as well as I felt like the familiarity of the writing and chapter set up would help me to better internalise the grammar without taking too much energy once I knew how things were set out and got used to the writers style, which has kind of helped. The audiobooks have helped with my listening a bit too.
I was going to use this series the same way I used the ミラーさん novels by reading extensively, then re-reading intensively before reading extensively again (without a break between) before going to the next one, but I kind of just plowed through until I hit that wall sometime in October.
I might restart it in the new year or decide just to keep going and then revisit it at a later date once I’ve finished the series and see if I find it easier then.
amazing, I like your plan with it as a series! I didn’t realise you had all the audiobooks and the guide book, too! I really love reading the gloss for each chapter after reading it and looking at the pictures in there.
Can the Manekineko book be read any time or is it part of the new series? I haven’t looked into it much since when I read the blurb for the new series I felt like it was a bit spoilery for the end of the main series we’re reading (thankfully I forgot what I read!). Anyway, that’s just to say it put me off reading the blurbs for other related books.
I suspect I will end up continuing to dive deeper and deeper into this series. It’s just so fun to have a series that is enjoyable and I’m used to the author’s style (and maybe it’s good to have bumps like Ch 4 where it forces me to do lookups, lol).
btw I looked up the anime and found DVDs on amazon, but they are soooo expensive
Thanks, I’m just hoping it works out like I plan
I haven’t read the guidebook yet as I was told there was spoilers but didn’t realise it was separated into the chapters. Might have a look at that for the chapters I’ve read so far.
The Manekineko book seems to have some parts from Zenitendo but mostly just parts where they are present so I would hold off til after reading the main series (I’ve not read it yet).
It does have a section with profiles of the Manekineko in the series alongside some sweet info (not sure if it’s related to the chapter/episode the cat is in or if there is a different significance), a 30 page 4 koma (think that’s right) manga section on the manekineko antics with a few extra 4 koma manga throughout, as well as a shorter normal manga which features the cats and Beniko, which I thinks tells of their connection to the Zenitendo.
There are also a few short stories about the manekineko that I think tie in to certain Zenitendo chapters but that’s just what I can see from a quick flick through.
I will continue with the series even once I can read it without much look ups as it seems to be one of those series I will return to when I need something for comfort and the more difficult chapters are good for forcing me to look up words I don’t know so I don’t get complacent.
I found the DVD on CD Japan but think they are around the same price as on Amazon.co.jp. I didn’t manage to find them on UK Amazon. But both Amazon JP and CD Japan had them around £15-£20 each. Each one apparently covers about 10 or so episodes. As far as I can tell, the DVDs cover the same as the book chapters do. I did find out a few spoilers so I wouldn’t read the info on Amazon or CD Japan, but if you can get a picture of the DVD it does show the chapter names
Edit: just to add, I am kinda tempted to buy a few of the DVD and also watch those 
Saw a few of you talking about the audiobooks. FYSA Audible US has a sale right now, with most of 銭天堂 going for 5 - 6 USD.
You may have to be a member to get the price, but figured I’d give a heads up. I’ll probably be picking up a few for volumes myself.
Thanks, for the heads up, That’s a decent price, think it’s cheaper than what I got some of them for previously.
Ah, I can help with that! I looked into the entire guidebook and then wrote a review, like a guide to the guidebook to help people avoid spoilers! In my review I break it down by section. Basically, for using the guidebook along with the series, I keep 3 bookmarks: one for the main sweet atlas, minor sweet atlas, and alternative sweet atlas (it will make sense when you read the review). I should have posted a link here earlier!
That is a great price, thanks for the heads up!
I’m in Germany where they normally sell for about 22€ or you can get them for a month’s subscription credit (9-10€). So what I do is wait for audible here to have deals where they offer a few months at 2-3€/mo and then I subscribe for that period and use my credits to get expensive audiobooks, so I effectively get each one for the month’s price.
