Back to novels for sure! I’m planning on using my next WK readathon for working through more of my manga, but in the meantime I might try to aim for a more reasonable one manga per week.
6 Likes
August Mangathon 2026
Day 28: 聖ガーディアン 1 | L24
So I did decide to move away from 東京ゴースト・トリップ, for what will probably be the remainder of the challenge. After thinking about it, I just wasn’t looking forward to reading them; DGM or Moon Trick definitely had days of “I’m tired, I don’t want to read”, but once I actually started reading them I enjoyed myself. TGT just ended up feeling like homework, so I’m moving on to another series I’ve had sitting in my backlog, 聖ガーディアン. There are only three volumes, so it’ll be a really quick checkmark. I’ve read a few of the author’s other works before and enjoyed them, so I figured this would probably be a decent series, if nothing else.
I did like volume one; we have a fun setup of transfer student + magic powers + the author’s usual bromance formula. This is her debut work, but like her other series, I’m guessing this’ll mostly just be flashy fun without a huge amount of depth. Like TGT this is probably a 3.5 stars for me, but unlike TGT it has enough that personally appeals to me to want to bump it up to 4 stars.
(Unrelated, but I found out TGT has a 2008 drama adaption! This feels like a good series for that kind of thing, honestly.)
Finished physical manga so far
Book 1: D.Gray-man 19
Book 2: MOON・TRICK 1
Book 3: D.Gray-man 20
Book 4: MOON・TRICK 2
Book 5: D.Gray-man 21
Book 6: MOON・TRICK 3
Book 7: D.Gray-man 22
Book 8: MOON・TRICK 4
Book 9: ホテル・メッツァペウラへようこそ 3
Book 10: ホテル・メッツァペウラへようこそ 4
Book 11: MOON・TRICK 5
Book 12: D.Gray-man 23
Book 13: MOON・TRICK 6
Book 14: D.Gray-man 24
Book 15: MOON・TRICK 7
Book 16: D.Gray-man 25
Book 17: MOON・TRICK 8
Book 18: D.Gray-man 26
Book 19: MOON・TRICK 9
Book 20: D.Gray-man 27
Book 21: D.Gray-man 28
Book 22: D.Gray-man 29
Book 23: MOON・TRICK 10
Book 24: MOON・TRICK 11
Book 25: MOON・TRICK 12
Book 26: MOON・TRICK 13
Book 27: 東京ゴースト・トリップ 1
Book 28: 東京ゴースト・トリップ 2
Book 29: 東京ゴースト・トリップ 3
Book 30: 聖ガーディアン 1
12 Likes
August Mangathon 2026
Day 28: 聖ガーディアン 2 | L24
Volume two handily read! Just one left in this short little series. Volume two was all right; nothing really spectacular, but I’m hoping the beginning of volume three at least will be interesting, given the setup at the end of this volume. I also completely forgot I own these volumes digitally as well for some reason; I must’ve seen a good deal on them some time back…
(Ah, I’ll need someone to break my post chain for me!)
Finished physical manga so far
Book 1: D.Gray-man 19
Book 2: MOON・TRICK 1
Book 3: D.Gray-man 20
Book 4: MOON・TRICK 2
Book 5: D.Gray-man 21
Book 6: MOON・TRICK 3
Book 7: D.Gray-man 22
Book 8: MOON・TRICK 4
Book 9: ホテル・メッツァペウラへようこそ 3
Book 10: ホテル・メッツァペウラへようこそ 4
Book 11: MOON・TRICK 5
Book 12: D.Gray-man 23
Book 13: MOON・TRICK 6
Book 14: D.Gray-man 24
Book 15: MOON・TRICK 7
Book 16: D.Gray-man 25
Book 17: MOON・TRICK 8
Book 18: D.Gray-man 26
Book 19: MOON・TRICK 9
Book 20: D.Gray-man 27
Book 21: D.Gray-man 28
Book 22: D.Gray-man 29
Book 23: MOON・TRICK 10
Book 24: MOON・TRICK 11
Book 25: MOON・TRICK 12
Book 26: MOON・TRICK 13
Book 27: 東京ゴースト・トリップ 1
Book 28: 東京ゴースト・トリップ 2
Book 29: 東京ゴースト・トリップ 3
Book 30: 聖ガーディアン 1
Book 31: 聖ガーディアン 2
10 Likes
No problem!
I’m trying to work through some of my owned books but it’s slow going. I just don’t seem to have the stamina to read too much in Japanese. I would love to go through a manga volume a day (or even a week), but I’m just not there yet. I know, the solution is “lots of practice” but I’m lazy and easily distracted. A conundrum. 
6 Likes
(Thank you @Neon_Kitsune!)
August Mangathon 2026
Day 29: 聖ガーディアン 3 | L24
And 聖ガーディアン finished! Short and cute, as I expected. It’s not much more than that though, and since I have digital copies of the books I’m considering donating my physical copies, but I’ll put them aside for a few days and see how I feel.
I only have two days left in my challenge; I’m thinking tomorrow’s book will be 災厄は僕を好きすぎる 1 | L24?? and Monday will be 憂国のモリアーティ-The Remains- 1 | L24?? , as I currently only own singleton volumes of those, and one of my soft goals for this month’s challenge was to “complete” the manga series I read during it (so either finishing/catching up with what I own for the series or DNF’ing it). I do have a couple of two-unread-volumes-owned series on my shelf, but I don’t feel like reading them at the moment. :S So singletons it shall be.
Finished physical manga so far
Book 1: D.Gray-man 19
Book 2: MOON・TRICK 1
Book 3: D.Gray-man 20
Book 4: MOON・TRICK 2
Book 5: D.Gray-man 21
Book 6: MOON・TRICK 3
Book 7: D.Gray-man 22
Book 8: MOON・TRICK 4
Book 9: ホテル・メッツァペウラへようこそ 3
Book 10: ホテル・メッツァペウラへようこそ 4
Book 11: MOON・TRICK 5
Book 12: D.Gray-man 23
Book 13: MOON・TRICK 6
Book 14: D.Gray-man 24
Book 15: MOON・TRICK 7
Book 16: D.Gray-man 25
Book 17: MOON・TRICK 8
Book 18: D.Gray-man 26
Book 19: MOON・TRICK 9
Book 20: D.Gray-man 27
Book 21: D.Gray-man 28
Book 22: D.Gray-man 29
Book 23: MOON・TRICK 10
Book 24: MOON・TRICK 11
Book 25: MOON・TRICK 12
Book 26: MOON・TRICK 13
Book 27: 東京ゴースト・トリップ 1
Book 28: 東京ゴースト・トリップ 2
Book 29: 東京ゴースト・トリップ 3
Book 30: 聖ガーディアン 1
Book 31: 聖ガーディアン 2
Book 32: 聖ガーディアン 3
13 Likes
I saw @eefara 's August Mangathon post at the beginning of the month and decided I’d also try a manga-focused challenge (thank you!). I had some time off as well so the timing worked out 
I remembered reading 海月姫 many years ago in English and enjoying it at the time, but somehow when I went back to it to read again in Japanese, I found I didn’t really enjoy it anymore.
Other than those, though, I enjoyed reading pretty much everything else. Some I will most likely be parting with once I read the rest of what I have of those series, but I did find some new favorites as well.
Tomorrow I’ll probably read ヴァニタスの手記 2 to finish out the month, and maybe とんがり帽子のアトリエ 5 if I have time after that.
For September I plan to start working through NANA! I’ve been meaning to properly read the series for a long time. I won’t only be reading manga though so I expect the progress will be slower.
12 Likes
Oh wow, awesome! Thanks for popping in and posting your pic; it’s very neat to see someone else doing something similar! Looks like you got through a ton of manga yourself, congratulations!
August Mangathon 2026
Day 30: 災厄は僕を好きすぎる 1 | L23
Have you ever read a book, and you’re pretty sure this is the first time you’re picking it up, but you have massive deja vu the entire time you’re reading? That was me for this book. I bought it two years ago and was pretty sure I hadn’t touched it once since, but now maybe I’m wondering if I skimmed through it back then? I’m wondering if maybe that’s why things feel familiar; the pictures do, but the text doesn’t.
…Does that mean my ability to casually pick up a random manga and read it has improved without me noticing? I can’t think of why I wouldn’t read this back when I bought it other than maybe there was some issue with difficulty back then? And now I would rate it as “not difficult”; honestly I feel like it’s one us the easier manga I’ve read this month!
And we’ve got one more day in the month! 
No crazy “let’s blast through as many manga as possible in 24h” for that (mostly due to me being super tired this weekend due to unrelated circumstances), but I can’t wait to see everyone assembled. 
I’m planning on writing up a closing post as well!
Anyway, re: 災厄は僕を好きすぎる, I enjoyed it! It has a promising premise:
Starting on his 17th birthday, protagonist 神楽育実(かぐら•いくみ) is cursed to undergo twelve disasters over one year, all of which will be fatal if he doesn’t avoid them. Newly transferred to his school is 一条千隼 (いちじょう•ちはや), a boy who’s fate is entangled with 育実’s, insofar as any wounds 育実 receives get transferred to 千隼, and he vows to protect 育実.
This is, compared to all the rest of the books I’ve been reading this month, actually BL. It seems like there’s a bit of mystery being set up, insofar as the origins of the curse and some mysterious side characters showing up. I’d like to read more, I think; bit of a shame I don’t own any more volumes, so I’ll have to keep my eyes open for it they go on sale.
Finished physical manga so far
Book 1: D.Gray-man 19
Book 2: MOON・TRICK 1
Book 3: D.Gray-man 20
Book 4: MOON・TRICK 2
Book 5: D.Gray-man 21
Book 6: MOON・TRICK 3
Book 7: D.Gray-man 22
Book 8: MOON・TRICK 4
Book 9: ホテル・メッツァペウラへようこそ 3
Book 10: ホテル・メッツァペウラへようこそ 4
Book 11: MOON・TRICK 5
Book 12: D.Gray-man 23
Book 13: MOON・TRICK 6
Book 14: D.Gray-man 24
Book 15: MOON・TRICK 7
Book 16: D.Gray-man 25
Book 17: MOON・TRICK 8
Book 18: D.Gray-man 26
Book 19: MOON・TRICK 9
Book 20: D.Gray-man 27
Book 21: D.Gray-man 28
Book 22: D.Gray-man 29
Book 23: MOON・TRICK 10
Book 24: MOON・TRICK 11
Book 25: MOON・TRICK 12
Book 26: MOON・TRICK 13
Book 27: 東京ゴースト・トリップ 1
Book 28: 東京ゴースト・トリップ 2
Book 29: 東京ゴースト・トリップ 3
Book 30: 聖ガーディアン 1
Book 31: 聖ガーディアン 2
Book 32: 聖ガーディアン 3
Book 33: 災厄は僕を好きすぎる 1
13 Likes
I randomly bought 花燭の白: 1【電子限定描き下ろしマンガ付き】 | L24?? a while ago when it was discounted, mostly because the cover looked nice and I expected a romance story like the several similar books or manga I read… but it’s more of an action seinen, which was unexpected. And I finally got through it.
It was not bad, but it was nothing special either. I love the drawing style, but, counterintuitively, it made reading the book harder, since I spent a lot of time zooming on my tiny screen to check the details, which made everything slower, and made the plot feel more boring than it was.
I guess that’s a me problem though 
I should go with paper for manga… but I literally have no space for that at home.
11 Likes
Tonight is the night I finally finished reading Le Petit Prince (L24). I bought it last winter because I’d read it in high school (when i was better at French 
) and thought it would be not too intimidating to pick up for reading practice. It did take me forever to read, but as always it was beautiful and worth it. I always forget that the bit with the fox makes me tear up a bit for realsies. I’m glad I own it and I’m glad that I’ve read it once again, I’m sure it won’t be the last time. 
12 Likes
August Mangathon 2026
Day 31: 憂国のモリアーティ-The Remains- 1 | L30
And that’s a wrap, folks!
I finished this right before collapsing into bed last night, but that just gives me more time to write up my thoughts the morning after, haha. First: the final manga.
I somehow managed to pick the volume that probably had the most text among all of my unread manga (or, at least that’s what it felt like, haha). Definitely a fun volume for fans of 憂国のモリアーティー though; this is the manga adaption of some of the stories from the LN side stories books (volume 1 here), and now I’m a bit sad to learn that only select LN stories were illustrated; I kinda want to see them all… Anyway, onto general month thoughts!
First up, some pictures:
Left is my total manga volumes finished this past month (they’re almost an entire shelf’s width), and the right is some of the damage done to my TBR shelf. 
Some stats:
| Series | # of volumes read | Finished all my owned volumes? | DNF? |
|---|---|---|---|
| D.Gray-man | L25 | 11 |  |
|
| MOON・TRICK | L25 | 13 | |
|
| ホテル・メッツァペウラへようこそ | L22 | 2 | |
|
| 東京ゴースト・トリップ | L27 | 3 | |
|
| 聖ガーディアン | L24 | 3 | |
|
| 災厄は僕を好きすぎる | L23 | 1 | |
|
| 憂国のモリアーティ-The Remains- | L30 | 1 | |
|
| Total: | 34 |
My current physical manga TBR for the year now sits at 63 finished and 88 remaining volumes.
I wanted to type up a small table of my remaining books and volume counts, so here we go as well:
| Series | # of volumes | Part/All of series is a reread? | All volumes are first-time reads? |
|---|---|---|---|
| SILVER DIAMOND | L28 | 27 | |
|
| 氷の魔物の物語 | L25 | 18 | |
|
| 八犬伝 ‐東方八犬異聞‐ | L24?? | 13 | |
|
| 幻惑の鼓動 | L28 | 11 (/28) | |
|
| 終点unknown | L24?? | 6 | |
|
| 光が死んだ夏 | L25 | 3 | |
|
| 憂国のモリアーティ | L30 | 2 | |
|
| 彼に依頼してはいけません | L27 | 2 | |
|
| 女装してめんどくさい事になってるネクラとヤンキーの両片想い | L24 | 2 | |
|
| 贋 まがいもの | L26 | 2 | |
|
| 魔法少女ダンデライオン | L22 | 2 | |
(幻惑の鼓動 there I technically only own 11 volumes of, but they’re volumes 4-9 and 27-31, so I’ll need to buy and read 10-26 if I want to get to the new stuff.)
I was really happy to clear out all my manga for author 森本秀 that I owned this year; Moon Trick was my last (physical) series for her. Next up on “I own basically all of this author’s works” is 杉浦志保.
I’m thinking I’m going to take a little break from manga for now; the WK fall readathon is approaching, however, and I’ve made good use of it this past spring event in chipping away at my manga backlog, so I intend to do so for fall (and maybe winter) as well! Normally I’d like to finish off a series during one of these events, but I doubt I’ll be in range for that to happen, so I’ll need to think a little to decide how I’d like to arrange things.
Would I ever do a month of reading one manga per day again? Maybe! It was definitely tough at times, but I ultimately had fun and got a lot of books read. This was mostly possible due to me having an abundance of free time, though, so (hopefully) next August will not look the same.
Thank you all for joining me and my cat day after day; it’s been really fun!
Finished physical manga so far
Book 1: D.Gray-man 19
Book 2: MOON・TRICK 1
Book 3: D.Gray-man 20
Book 4: MOON・TRICK 2
Book 5: D.Gray-man 21
Book 6: MOON・TRICK 3
Book 7: D.Gray-man 22
Book 8: MOON・TRICK 4
Book 9: ホテル・メッツァペウラへようこそ 3
Book 10: ホテル・メッツァペウラへようこそ 4
Book 11: MOON・TRICK 5
Book 12: D.Gray-man 23
Book 13: MOON・TRICK 6
Book 14: D.Gray-man 24
Book 15: MOON・TRICK 7
Book 16: D.Gray-man 25
Book 17: MOON・TRICK 8
Book 18: D.Gray-man 26
Book 19: MOON・TRICK 9
Book 20: D.Gray-man 27
Book 21: D.Gray-man 28
Book 22: D.Gray-man 29
Book 23: MOON・TRICK 10
Book 24: MOON・TRICK 11
Book 25: MOON・TRICK 12
Book 26: MOON・TRICK 13
Book 27: 東京ゴースト・トリップ 1
Book 28: 東京ゴースト・トリップ 2
Book 29: 東京ゴースト・トリップ 3
Book 30: 聖ガーディアン 1
Book 31: 聖ガーディアン 2
Book 32: 聖ガーディアン 3
Book 33: 災厄は僕を好きすぎる 1
Book 34: 憂国のモリアーティ-The Remains- 1
15 Likes
Holy that was a quick read! Today I finished India, La Fée Des Pierres de Lune (L16 ??).
Considering the others that I’ve read in this series took me weeks to read, I’m actually shocked that I managed to blow through this in two days, but I think since finishing Le Petit Prince (L24) both my skill and confidence has risen quickly, and these books for eight year olds feel far less daunting. This is the first book in the gemstone series (of which I have already read 3 & 4…) and it’s interesting how the first 50% or so is just. all of the exposition for the miniseries. I guess I’d forgotten that about these books. Feeling good! 
10 Likes
Oh, I like seeing a slightly battered paperback. 
It’s nice seeing the Scholastic label as well!
4 Likes
Me too! I’ve been sourcing most of my French reading material from the depths of used bookstores or else facebook marketplace, and because I loved reading some of these books so much in English as a kid it does warm my heart when theyre already a little beat before I get my hands on them 
8 Likes
Another fairy book, done and dusted!
Today I’ve finished reading Téa, la fée des tulipes (L16 ??), which is the first of the flower fairies. I read this one as a kid, and I believe this is possibly the book where I learned the word “particularly,” which I suddenly remembered with clarity once Téa and the girls encountered the goblin with the particularly long nose. Some of the drawings were also very familiar and nostalgic for me.
These books are becoming really great confidence boosters for me, now that I feel that I have more practice with them and recognize many of the common turns of phrases used from book to book. The fact that they’re so formulaic doesn’t hurt either. I’m excited to read through the whole sub-series though, I only ever had the first two of these ones when they came out! 
14 Likes
Your updates are a great reminder that reading from the same series can be very helpful to learn vocab and grammar patterns that the author uses frequently. I started reading a children’s book series but I take a break between each book to read other things, and when I get back to it I only faintly remember certain words… Maybe I should try reading two back to back next year 
7 Likes
I agree! For me, since these books definitely follow a certain formula, it serves a similar function to rereading the same text a few times to really nail down the vocabulary and grammar, with the benefit of reading a new story (or else I get bored ). It’s really gratifying to notice things that would have tripped me up a few months ago that I now recognize and can take in with relative ease. This series holds a lot of nostalgia for me as I’ve mentioned before, but I do like and recommend this strategy! I have a lot of these too, so this won’t be the last you see of me in this thread! 
7 Likes
Me again! Since it’s a quiet Sunday I managed to devour all of Claire, la fée des coquelicots (L16 ??) in a single afternoon.
I won’t write a novel this time, as these books are largely similar to one another. I did remember this one much better than I did Téa, and I liked Rachel’s hairdo in the illustrations. To books 3-7 of this series: consider your days numbered. 
13 Likes
We’re gonna need a group pic with all the slain books once you’re done with the series!
7 Likes
It’s been a while since my last update, but my ‘read my borrowed KU books’ challenge has been going great! I’m 5 books down. I’m reading these much faster than expected at about a pace of 1 book a week.
I don’t think I can keep this up indefinitely, but I hope I can use this momentum for some more books this month. I’ll be in Japan in October and spend much less time reading, so it’s good I’m getting a bit of a head start.
Details
I finished the first two books in the 狼と羊皮紙 | L30?? series as well as 狼と香辛料 19 | L37 , the second Spring Log volume of the main series. I’m glad I decided to go in publishing order with these, since the 2nd spring log does reference some of the happenings of the parchment series so far. I think you can still read it perfectly fine on its own, it’s just a nice bonus to have that extra background information while reading.
I am also doing some bookclub reading in between, but I still felt like some change. So yesterday I decided to sample some of my other KU picks and got stuck on FLESH & BLOOD 3 | L35, which I proceeded to devour. I forgot since I take year-round breaks apparently, but the F&B volumes are so short compared to the wolf& series and most of the other books I’ve been reading recently. It was a lot of fun and I wish I had more in stock. I’ll try to pick up some volumes in print in October.
The other one I sampled is 雨森潤奈は湿度が高い【電子特典付き】 | L27 , which so far is just very mid. The writing style is pretty clean, which I like, but I haven’t been able to sympathize with any of the characters so far. Also there’s some developments that just make me go 
… Nothing that would make me DNF it, but it won’t be something I binge. (This is also one I downloaded after starting this challenge. Oops? I guess it’s all good so long as I cancel KU in the end. 
)
10 Likes
F&B mentioned! Glad you enjoyed!
5 Likes
