And here I thought there was yet another convert in the space. 
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Any book that features a magical boy main character, that includes transformation into feminine clothing! 
I’ve added you as a collab if you want to add suggestions. 
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The goods have been documented boss 
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Many things I’ve read that are labeled as/marketed as ホラー have not been what I would recognize as horror. A perfect example is 秋の牢獄 | L31 which I have seen on many ホラー lists but which in my mind was more just mildly unsettling short stories.
I think the Japanese perspective on what counts as horror is just different than the western one. We expect a certain amount of blood, or panic, or nastiness to be revealed. Japanese media can be ホラー even if it’s just an unpleasant atmosphere.
Put another way, all that is ‘horror’ in Western media would fall under the ホラー umbrella, but not all that is ホラー is ‘horror’ 
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Somehow I keep adding things 
About 60% Yuri rn
ライトノベル
- 小説 夜のクラゲは泳げない 1 | L29 - at the very beginning rn. Curious how it compares to the anime (that last episode did some serious damage to my heart tho!)
https://learnnatively.com/book/683c02ee33/- it was enjoyable, but halfway through has gotten boring. I don’t think I’ll read the next 2 when I’m done. Update: I dropped so I can do 声優ラジオ 2 instead- SAO ホープフル・チャント | L34 - slow and steady. Usually do a page or two at a time rn
- 声優ラジオのウラオモテ #02 夕陽とやすみは諦めきれない? | L28 - just started. No audiobook for this one, so curious to see how it feels
漫画
- https://learnnatively.com/series/2519a70ee7/ - casual reread, cuz I got the physicals
- https://learnnatively.com/book/65a6f5e946/ - it’s going well enough, and I like the story
- https://learnnatively.com/book/437291e619/ - has very creative use of color. Seemed possibly spicy, but anything too mature is indirectly depicted
- https://learnnatively.com/book/1c2d32e37d/ - enjoying, going well… Very different from reading the VN. Some of the things that you don’t learn about until later routes show up here
https://learnnatively.com/book/5c86fdace6/- underwhelming for me, but easier read than the main series. Update: I dropped it- https://learnnatively.com/book/9c62c06e57/ - it’s ok lookups are the main pain. Plan to read the whole series eventually, but may wait till I actually buy it
- https://learnnatively.com/book/40dfc44991/ - in lessons, hard cuz of the handwriting, but good otherwise
- https://learnnatively.com/book/b2171831a2/ - in lessons. Amazing as always
- https://learnnatively.com/book/596c505182/ - haven’t touched in over month, but I’ll finish eventually
雑誌
- Animage(アニメージュ)2024年06月号 - has interviews and articles related to various anime. Started it cuz of ガルクラ 声優 interview
- 週刊ファミ通2024年5月30日号No.184 - a mix of anime idol and gaming… Not sure what I’ll get out of it, but seemed worth exploring
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Just looking at the preview makes me want to cry. I consider myself pretty good at reading manga handwriting these days, but that looks like it would require a lot of extra effort.
I never read these anthologies. I imagine they are always non-canon fluff, where the quality will vary from chapter to chapter depending on who wrote that chapter. Just doesn’t interest me at all, even for my favorite series.
I didn’t enjoy volumes 3 and 4 as much as the first two. I still have volumes 5 and 6 sitting unread on my book shelf, but probably won’t read them anytime soon.
Yeah, it’s the sloppiest manga handwriting I’ve seen, by a longshot. Even my teacher said it’s tricky. I’m not as good at reading handwriting as I’d like, so it’s good practice!
Yeah basically. I got it on Amazon by accident a while back, so I figured I’d try it… In the past I would have pushed through it just to get the extra book count, but life’s too short to read boring books.
I might wanna seek out some 同人誌 stuff eventually, cuz I wouldn’t mind seeing some of the potential couples explored… But idk where to even start with looking for that (and filtering out the ones I’m less likely to enjoy)
Halfway through, and I can see why that might be the case. I’m still enjoying it though, and it’s cool seeing my weekly progress with it. I sorta wanna switch to アオのハコ 1 | L24 after this, but I’ll probably continue through the rest of the series, since my teacher also really likes it.
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I got nothing on that! Sounds like a dangerous road to head down, in that once you do you might find yourself with no time left. Kind of like people who read entire manga magazines. 
If nothing else it’s good practice. Definitely among the harder manga I’ve read. If you want an even harder 4-koma in the future I’d recommend 紡ぐ乙女と大正の月 | L30 or うらら迷路帖 | L32. The former takes place in the Taisho era and discusses some historical content and has occasional outdating word usage. There will actually be a book club over on WaniKani for it starting very soon. The latter is a bit slow to get good, but it follows some 占い師 in training, so the challenge is in the vocab around that and the occasional classical Japanese used in the fortune telling.
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For better or worse, the most series from the same magazine that I’ve been able to get into is about 5 series in 百合姫… So I’m safe on that count 
. It’s not so bad when it’s the monthly magazines. (Tho waiting a month for each new chapter is agonizing)
Anyway I just did some searching, and this seems like a lost cause. Like 99% of anything that’s showing up is エロ stuff, which is really not what I’m looking for. Oh well.
I’m having trouble imagining those words coming out of my mouth 
The former’s already on my list, and the latter does seem interesting. In any case, thx for the recs 
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Finished 四つ子ぐらし 1 ひみつの姉妹生活、スタート! | L22, my fourth book ever, and very happy - this was maybe the first time I really felt like I was just reading a JPN book (helped by instant lookups admittedly) instead of studying it. Going to take a quick break to read a bit more DunMeshi8 and さよなら絵梨 and then probably find another prose kid’s book to read, either one of the suggested ones previously with more kanji (seriously I found this really irritating in 四つ子 though it wasn’t too bad by the end) or one I already have.
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What am I reading you ask? Way too many things…
But there’s a reason for all of them. One is a book club, another is a 4-koma. Then I started a digital manga because I saw @暁のルナ had started it. Then I started Tomo-chan so I’d have a digital manga I can actually read at the gym without getting weird looks… And tonight I started Oshi no Ko volume 3 so that I can try to finish volumes 3 and 4 before the next season of the anime starts (acting as my refresher).
And all of those are progressing slowly because I’m spending most of my reading time on 本好き volume 29 anyway.
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And I started it cuz you mentioned it in the yuri book club thread I love that we inspire each other’s reading choices 
ooh - another one I mentioned
reading manga in public sometimes be like 
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I bet if/when Brandon implements a user synergy feature ours will be high! 
Yeah, why read any of the dozens of digital manga I already own or the ones I just bought on 33 yen sale when instead I can buy another manga?
(I just really wanted a 4-koma for some reason)
I’m usually like “whatever no one is looking that closely” even for romance and yuri manga, but this one is a bit much to read in public…
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Just started https://learnnatively.com/book/2f59b479a7/, which I was very much looking forward to reading. But I only have 12 days to read it (the library in my town had to borrow it from a different library), so it’s a bit daunting. The short stories 荒野聖 and 歌行灯 can be found on Aozora, but I prefer paper and just looking at the first couple of pages I’ve noticed that there are a number of kanji not present in the Aozora version, which also has more abundant furigana.
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I’ve been reading なぜ？どうして？かがくのお話 一年生 and although there is a lot of hiragana it’s set out in such a way that there are gaps between the words so it’s a little easier to figure out what’s what. I feel it’s a little under my level in some places and a little over my level in others but only on the vocabulary side of things and most of the vocabulary I’ve managed to guess from context but still looked up to check if I was correct.
It’s been a pretty comfortable read and although it’s aimed at kids, I’ve really been enjoying reading through it so bought another set of similar books from 一年生 to 六年生 levels (身近な疑問 set).
Each short article is a few pages long with some longer articles spaced between each section and there are several sections throughout that deal with different things (eg in this book, it has info on the body, on animals and also on food and everyday life). I think it’s part of the “10 minute” series as the articles are pretty short. They remind me of mini encyclopaedias that I used to read in Primary School
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since I’m a bit on the overflow I’m still mainly listening to the audiobook, but I wanted to share a bit of a funny “oops” between reality and listening to the audiobook I’m on (a.k.a ゴーストハント)
so I was playing dbd with some friends when I was playing with an ability called 「地雷爆破」
but since my head is a mess and tends to mesh things up, instead of saying that I ended up saying 地縛霊 
they were confused for a sec before proceeding to laugh
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Paused most of what I’m reading bc ソードアート・オンライン1 アインクラッド | L34 now has an audiobook!! And ソードアート・オンライン28 ユナイタル・リングVII | L34 just released
SAO 28: to my frustration, the first half is all in Underworld, and I skimmed 60-75% of it. I don’t enjoy the villains in this arc, and Kawahara-sensei over explains things via inner monologue. Combined with 10-20 lookups per pg, and I just wasn’t in the mood. I’ll probably take my time in the 2nd half tho. (Tbf I’m also rushing cuz I wanna be able to read discussion threads)
SAO 1: I’m carefully reading, since it’s with the audiobook. Lookups are closer to 5-13 per pg at most - which is bearable. Great vocab builder, and it’s such a relief to not have to guess ambiguous readings. It’s making me nostalgic for Progressive (tho that shares the over explaining problem too). I was hoping it would have the anime VAs, but the narrator does a pretty solid job so far, and I’d be thrilled if they make audiobooks for the rest of the series!
Otherwise 〆切前には百合が捗る | L29 which I’m enjoying, and はなにあらし 1 | L18 + 五等分の花嫁 | L23 for light reading (physical vols). Also read some more in the current 百合姫 magazine, which was mostly positive. Excited for this month’s especially after that ささやくように恋を唄う | L20 cliffhanger!
Update: 私の百合はお仕事です! 1 | L28 snuck in after I started watching the anime. It’s not the best, but it’s enjoyable enough, and it’s another monthly 百合姫 series I’m definitely glad I started with the anime, cuz it’s really helping with the vocab. The handwriting portions are surprisingly neat, relative to other manga I’ve read
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推しの子 hurts my brain. So much slang. So much industry vocab. Funny enough the manga has the same difficulty rating (L31) as 本好き, but fantasy is much more my comfort zone so I find 推しの子 to be much harder.
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Speaking of 本好き, I really loved volume 28 and it’s possibly my favorite of the series so far. But volume 29 has been a letdown. It’s not bad, I just don’t love the pacing (too much action happening too quickly). Not to mention the many “bonus” chapters after the epilogue showing stuff from different areas while the prep/battle is going on (which I’ve barely started because it’s tedious). I had hoped this whole sequence would wrap up by the end of the volume so I could take a break, but it clearly won’t. @Naphthalene can you tell me (without any details) if volume 29 or 30 is a better break point? I need one more break for a month or two before finishing the series and I need to take it now or soon.
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Yes, I feel like the publication approach of having the chapters from the point of view of other characters at the end didn’t work well here.
The next volume has the same issue. 
I would say 30. It wraps up the current events and provides a bit of down time before the next thing, which starts properly from volume 31. It’s not really a cliffhanger though. Just “okay, we finished that, so now we have to do this; let’s move!”.
Volumes 31 and 32 kinda go together, too, so you will want to stop before 31.
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