Ah, that’s too bad. I really like that mangaka’s style personally. If you haven’t read his previous work ゴールデンカムイ | L32 it may be a bit surprising though.
That being said, I can’t say I see much difference with the cover art 
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Huh, I kinda thought JJBA and Golden Kamuy were the same author, but tbh I don’t pay much attention to either bc I don’t like either of their art
The cover is fine to me, and there are some parts where the chapter art is fine (or even beautiful… but not when it shows faces), but most of if is… no.
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Finished the fever dream that it’s
I’m looking forward to see how they do with the Anime.
And I decided to put a long hold on 本好きの下剋上~司書になるためには手段を選んでいられません~第一部「兵士の娘3」.
Looking at all the things I want to read on my TBR pile, I had a sort of revelation suddenly that I have too much stuff I want to try reading ASAP to be stuck in something that takes me way too much effort to continue.
So I’ll be swapping the Audiobook read along of 本好きの下剋上~司書になるためには手段を選んでいられません~第一部「兵士の娘3」 with 異世界のんびり農家 05, and the free spot will be something from the ever growing TBR pile
Maybe I’ll try to narrow it to 2-3 titles and put a poll on “What should I read next?” Megathread
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Picked SAO 3 back up:
It’s super refreshing and nice to read something where the characters, plot, and setting(s) have some more depth, maturity, and weight to them (compared to my usual reads). It’s almost identical to the anime (for now), but having both Kazuto/Kirito, Suguaha, and Asuna’s inner monologue really adds a lot (especially Suguha’s fleshes out her character more). While the lookups are constant, I find the sentences surprisingly easy to understand (and not just b/c of story familiarity).
Finished 弱キャラ友崎くん 2 | L28, which I read along to the very excellent audiobook. I wasn’t stopping for lookups, so some amount went over my head, but again nearly identical to the anime. One thing I was dissatisfied with is that most of the conversations feel like small talk. Decided to put a hold on that series for now.
Book clubs: NHKにようこそ! | L32 is interesting enough that I haven’t dropped it yet 
, and the book club for 薬屋のひとりごと 2 | L38 starts in 2 days. It’s intimidating
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We’ll conquer the book together! 
Have faith!
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Haha we’ll see. Thankfully the chapters are on the shorter side, and it looks like I can get it working with Yomichan, so that should help somewhat.
I have a really terrible track record with book clubs though, so no promises
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The one I’m intimidated with is Home Thread for 薬屋のひとりごと 2 | Starting April 15 
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Finished https://learnnatively.com/series/a17fd5a3c5/ yesterday evening – I love that manga so much.
I’m starting 女坂 | L30?? today. I couldn’t find a digital version, so lookups are going to be a pain. I remember half-understanding this book in college (unlike 春琴抄 from the same class which I understood none of), so I think I can probably handle it.
I like the idea of alternating between books and manga. If I try to read multiple things at the same time, I end up making no progress on either, so it’s one at a time for me.
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Omg I love manga! I also bought the new edtion to reread it but I am wait to get in the moon
what happened to Subaru and Seishirou is so heart broken espically if you readd Tokyo Babylon before </3
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死にたがりな少女の自殺を邪魔して、遊びにつれていく話。
So far i love it. Im so grateful someone recommended it on reddit ;-;
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Any thoughts on her other series? I enjoyed 青い花 a lot, and started but put down 放浪息子 (wasn’t quite vibing with) and おとなになっても (seemed alright, but other books caught my attention). I do plan to pick them up again eventually
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Haven’t read any of her others yet! I’ve got a pretty long TBR list right now, but both of those are on it, so I’ll get to them!
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I was wrong.
Maybe I’ve gotten too reliant on the convenience of digital lookups, but it was an absolute struggle to get through each page. Dropping it back to the bottom of my TBR list and moving on to 夜は短し歩けよ乙女 | L42 instead.
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Finished
- FLESH & BLOOD 15 | L35 - just finished today; I’m looking forward to volume 16, a lot of good stuff was set up here!
- 吸血鬼と愉快な仲間たち 5 | L26 - the manga adaption has finally come back from a hiatus, so in my excitement I picked this up when I saw it in Japan last year. Excellent volume; I finally decided to take the plunge and pick up the (physcial-only) original books.
- ババンババンバンバンパイア 7 | L25 - Enjoyable read as usual; shenanigans all around.
Ongoing (Book Club)
- 神去なあなあ日常 | L33 - I need to push through and finish this one. >.< I’m enjoying it, but it somehow always manages to get pushed to the bottom of the reading pile. Just over halfway through.
- 薬屋のひとりごと 2 | L38 - week 1 went well, though I’m going to need to be careful to allot myself plenty of quality reading time as I go through these chapters. I didn’t bother reviewing some of the specialized vocab I picked up from the first book, and I’m regretting it now, haha. On the other hand, grammar this time around is much easier.
- マグメル深海水族館 1 | L24 - I’m considering finishing this in one go. This feels like the kind of series where any vibes will be diminished from me only reading it for 20 minutes a week, and the book deserves better. I’ve also got volume 2, so hopefully I can read that one fairly quickly after number one and decide on if I want to continue the series.
Ongoing (Non-Book Club)
- The Routledge Course in Japanese Translation | L30 - I finally have a more stable schedule to read this one (which, incidentally, got taken over by F&B 15 this week…). Hoping for good, consistent progress over the next month. I was doing the translation exercises as I went before, but given how much time they take, I’ve decided to skip them for the time being in favor of just getting a high-level overview for now.
Paused
- 今日からマ王! 魔王誕生編 | L33 - I’m definitely going to finish book number two
and get this off my reading pile, just not sure when yet. - 魔法少年なつき×らびっツ 2 | L24 - started the first chapter and got irritated at the low-quality resolution of my Kindle copy, so I decided to add physical copies of the books in my most recent book order. Hoping those will be here this weekend so I can share the pretty pics!
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And just finished reading テイルズ・オブ・シンフォニア | L24! This is one of those series I’ve had on my shelf since the early, early days; I love the game, and younger me was thrilled to bits at the thought of possibly, one day reading the manga adaption in Japanese!!
…Suffice to say the manga adaption doesn’t quite live up to the source material, but it’s definitely not for lack of trying on the mangaka’s part. I enjoyed reading it nonetheless, and am glad I’ve finally fulfilled one of younger eefara’s Japanese dreams, haha. I even decided to add the book of short stories (テイルズ・オブ・シンフォニア EXTRALOAD | L24) as my newest entry to my “favorite manga” list for my dashboard; I teared up a few times while reading it, not gonna lie. 
Unfortunately, despite all that I don’t think I can use it for my bingo. It would fit for both “finish a series” and “longest TBR(ish)” and is indeed a backlogged set of books, but I already have plans for both of those two categories; they’re currently in line to be fulfilled by some series that are even nearer and dearer to my heart.
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Would you recommend it to someone who hasn’t played the game? (I added it to my wishlist any, so just curious)
Btw are you aiming to do translation work at some point? Just wondering, cuz of the Routledge book
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Hmmm. I think the manga is an okay replacement if you have no other option. It’s a bit tough to say how well it holds up for someone who hasn’t played the game, as the manga has to cut out quite a bit and my brain just naturally fills in details. It’s a decent fantasy adventure story I’d say at least, and worst comes to worst it’s got furigana, a relatively low level, and is available digitally, so could be good practice fodder for at least a volume of two if the story doesn’t hook you.
Yeah, I really want to. 
Not necessarily anything paid, just fan trans work; I always admired all the hard-working fan translators back in the day, and have really wanted to pay the debt forward, as it were, someday. Honestly I don’t necessarily need to read the book, I just need to translate at this point to get that practice and experience in.
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Gotcha. The manga looks more interesting to me, of the two. I barely game lately besides Stardew Valley, so I’ve got a loooooong backlog until I’m allowed to buy new games . I did start one of the Ys games and 五等分の花嫁 2, so maybe I’ll get back to one of those sometime this month?
Cool. I’ve sometimes thought translation might be cool to do someday (similar motivation, and definitely not professionally). Probly too much work tho, so I don’t think I actually would. I only get lazier as I get older I’ll leave it to those more passionate than I.
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If you know what type of translation you want to do and who your target audience is, reading a lot of professional (well translated) works in that area is better than practice, imo. Technical translations are way easier than literary ones. 
(if you want the translation to be good)
Personally, I didn’t feel like translating helped me much at uni, but the classes about specific topics, did. (I have a degree in translating)
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