I’m a bit more than 1/4 into 鹿の王 vol. 5 and I like it a lot so far! We see old friends and old and new discussions, and they are just about to dive into a topic I am very interested in: the analytical view of Western medicine vs. the holistic view of Asian medicine. Granted, this is not a scientific book, so a lot of it needs to be taken with buckets of salt, but I thought it’s an interesting discussion nonetheless.
I’m also continuing with 黒い森 and 銭天童 as well as starting out on 虐殺器官 (which I am very scared of, so I should maybe tackle this first… )
Well, I finished it yesterday. I’ve played quite a few TRPGs, but never heard of the “Henderson scale”. It’s a way to measure how far off track the players have gone. As far as this book is concerned, it’s just used to show “what if” scenarios (Henderson 1) or simply some slightly unrelated short story (Henderson 0.1).
The book itself was fun, and the text wasn’t as bad as I feared in terms of loli content. The illustrations, though. The author was like “let’s not think about that” and the illustrator was like “let’s have a good hard look at it instead”. I have to say that a few of them made me uncomfortable.
There’s one sex scene (in the what if, when they are both in their twenties), and we get full frontal nudity in the illustration. The art style makes it so that you don’t get to see much, but still.
Speaking of which, there’s no illustration of guys. I really wanted to see what the MC’s brothers look like (especially when his oldest brother gets married), but I guess the illustrator doesn’t care about that.
I considered going on with the series, but there are more suspiciously underage looking girls on the cover, and kinda gave up. (The first volume ends on a cliffhanger, so I’ll probably give in at some point and get back to it just to know how it goes)
Finished ぜんぶきみの性 (series) | L21. Enjoyed, but took me until vol 3 to get into it. Sometimes the serious moments were nice, but some of it landed a bit too close to home for me, which hampered my enjoyment. (That’s to its credit… but also not what I want out of manga). I’d probably recommend it.
Reading (and watching) らんま1/2 (series) | L23. Really enjoying so far. It’s interesting comparing the manga to the anime. There’s things each does really well, but also (generally minor) changes and filler that often seems unnecessary to me. As an aside, it’s one of the extremely rare times I actually enjoyed the English dub (back in high school).
I’m currently half way through 母という呪縛 娘という牢獄 | L30?? and I have no idea how I managed to get through so much of this in one go as I find it so depressing to read.
I don’t consider any of this spoilers as it’s a nonfiction book, but I’m putting it behind a spoiler tag in case people don’t want to see it. Mentions of real life murder and child abuse:
The further I read the more I feel for the murderer (あかり). Is her murder of her mother justified? No. Do I understand why she felt so trapped that it seemed like her only way out? Yes. I think I’m currently at attempt #3 to run away and she’s still in high school. While some of the abuse is physical, the bulk of it is mental/emotional and constant. I honestly suspect living in prison now may be the most free she’s ever felt (barring the short period before her arrest).
This line just made me feel sick (it came after her mother squashed her chances of getting a job to support herself independently):
I saw I reached 100 books these days, about one third of them novels (31) and far too many manga (60). The latter will even become more, as I am trying to read the currently free six volumes of 魔入りました!入間くん 1 before their deadline. Far too many manga are free to read these days
Today and for the last few days I’m reading Tokyo Revengers. I’m getting through it very quicky and am up to number 7 now. I read most of it when it was being published but I never read the last few volumes because they weren’t released yet at the time. I’m looking forward to finishing it this time.
Well, I had some time yesterday, so I read quickly through TRPGプレイヤーが異世界で最強ビルドを目指す 2 ~ヘンダーソン氏の福音を | L40 in the end. That solved the cliffhanger. I’m actually sad that the love interest from volume 1 is gone… No matter how sus her appearance was, the author kinda convinced me that they are a good couple. But it was like “okay, I am going to leave the village now, bye”. She gives him something that is reminiscent of an engagement (ear)ring but nothing happens otherwise (not even a kiss). The Henderson 1 story from volume 1 does justify that, if they had sex, the story is over, so we are following the universe where that did not happen, but surely a kiss would have been okay?? Or even natural, considering the situation, I don’t know.
Anyway, volume 2 mostly follows a self contained quest, which felt very much like a one shot session in a TRPG. In fact, the author mentioned in the あとがき that that’s the concept for the series (it’s a bunch of semi-independent scenarios following the main character; skill and equipment cary over, but the time and environment are kinda jumping around in the “3 months later” kinda fashion).
The writing was worse didn’t really include any flowery section like volume 1, which was disappointing. I did like the Henderson 1 section, though. It was pretty obvious which “bad choice” the main character could have made, but it was fun to see what would have happened (rather than just an ominous “it sounds like a bad idea to make such a deal with a cosmic horror; pass”).
I also checked the preview of volume 3. Just like volume 2, things feel really slow. The author mentioned writing a lot of extra content for the published version, I wonder if they are aiming for one book = one quest/scenario. [Edit: considering that volume 4 is split between 上 and 下, I think that might be the case]
The color illustrations aren’t that bad in volume 3 either (compared to what has been shown so far). One character has impossibly large breasts, but that’s still a step in the right direction ('cause she looks like an adult, for once). One of the illustration showed the main character getting 膝枕 from yet another girl, while clearly showing his engagement earring and, for some reason, that made me angry.
[Edit: reading those books has borked my Booklive recommendations as well; no I don’t want to read any of that.]
So, yesterday I started my last bingo book, didn’t get into it and stopped after like 5 pages.
Instead, I started reading BANANA FISH (series) | L33 and finished the first volume. The story is really intriguing so far and I love the art style.
That being said, everything about it screams Seinen manga, so I’m still confused as to why it’s published under a Shojo label??
I think the reviews were good – it was only intended as a one-shot but it was popular enough that he wrote more of it. I wondered if it was a bit like Conan Doyle killing off Sherlock Holmes because people kept wanting him to write more of that but he wanted to do something else, so he wrote an ending that was “there really can’t be any more after this one”. (Not that it worked for Doyle…)
Still weird to publish it under a Shojo label for that reason
Anyway, speaking of BL elements, I just reached a “kiss”. That’s not what I would call BL due to context, but sure (anyway I like those characters).
The other way around, then? Come for Shojo content, but get Seinen (and maybe eventually BL) instead?
Based on context (and my recent experience reading 今日から(マ)王), I assume that means 90s/2000s BL is when no BL? At the same time, I have watched 純情ロマンチカ, which is from that time period, and there was definitely BL in there, so I don’t know.
(Also, looking it up made me realize that it’s still on-going?? Time-wise, I guess I only saw the first season, or more likely the first two seasons).
That was a lot later, wasn’t it? I think of like Gravitation of Koko wa Greenwood when I think of 90s BL, which was a lot more implication than actual BL (at least in the anime, never read either manga).
Edit: I suppose you said 90s/00s BL and that is 00s
I mean, the manga is from 2002, the anime from 2008, while Gravitation is from 1996 and the anime from 2000, so they are both '90s/'00s series.
So, yes, they both would fit in that category for that reason Maybe 純情ロマンチカ is the exception, I don’t know. (Also, I haven’t read nor watched Gravitation (Edit: yet), despite having it on my TBR forever, so I can’t really say)
Omg I just realized what series y’all are talking about… that show was something else (I watched it 20 yrs ago tho, so I couldn’t say more specifically). Also this is reminding me of Weiß Kreuz , which is not BL (or GL iirc) but may as well be w/ certain characters (and also just reaaaally over the top)
This feels like high school nostalgia week for me, at this rate (currently reading Ranma 1/2 & watching Inuyasha too)
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