I’m trying to clean up my TBR from other places so that I can just have everything on Natively.
One of the things on my bookmeter TBR was 吸血鬼はお年ごろ | L26 which, in typical 赤川次郎 fashion, is really easy to read. I read more than a hundred page in a single sitting when… err… this happens:
ごく自然にふたりの唇が出会った……。
That’s about the main character and (minor spoiler) her cousin and comes just after the moment when she wonders if she likes him (me: as family, right? RIGHT? … I guess not).
I’m not sure I like where it’s going
Even more so than most 赤川次郎, I think. My impression is it’s aimed at a younger audience; it was originally published by Cobalt[*]. Interestingly Wikipedia calls it a light novel…
[*] with what I personally think is pretty awful cover art:
I finished 日本語で読むということ | L40?? which means I’ve now read 300 books in Japanese! (I go by my booklog count for this; my Natively count includes a couple of textbooks. I only count actual books, not manga, for these purposes.)
This was a close fought race between that book, セーラー服と機関銃 | L31 and 悪魔が来りて笛を吹く | L38 – I expect to finish both of the latter two over the weekend.
The last part of 日本語で読むということ | L40?? was a little less interesting than the first two thirds, as it got a bit repetitive because it included pieces the author originally wrote for different venues about her own books and there was thus naturally some overlap in content. Overall the book is a three star for me – fine if you particularly like or are interested in the author, but not a book I would actively recommend otherwise.
Agreed. I do like the one I have (same as on Natively) much better.
That sounds very possible, with most characters being in high school.
I am finding the insistence that some characters are over 18 a little suspicious, but maybe I’m reading too much into it.
That plus re-read is why I keep track of stuff on bookmeter as well as on here.
Congrats on the 300 books!
As I was writing up my Natively review I included a bit about how one of the later pieces was a eulogy for the author 辻邦生, and this was a bit less interesting to me because I’d never heard of them. Except it turns out I’d randomly read his 安土往還記 | L30?? because it was on sale in a charity shop… (Historical novel about Oda Nobunaga; told from the viewpoint of an Italian adventurer who came to Japan with the Jesuit missionaries. IIRC it was good but a difficult read.)
During tech issues at work today, I spent about 2 and a half hours finishing reading the last 5 chapters of ミラーさん (みんなの日本語 red novel). Not the most exciting of books but it’s still fun for me to see how much I can understand compared to last time.
I have read it several times, but this time there was only one chapter I will need to re-read (chapter 16, not sure why it was so difficult compared to the rest) and I understood most of the book without having to look anything up except a few words to confirm my understanding. Last time there were several chapters I didn’t understand, even with look ups and intensive reading.
Kind of happy that I can see so much of an improvement even though it’s taken me around 2 years to see the improvement I’ve made. It’s still a step in the right direction
Well I finished 雨夜の月 volumes 6 and 7. Now I have to wait!
I also “finished” 現実もたまには嘘をつく on pixiv, in that I stopped when it basically said “the final arc starts now”, which was most of what was already released. The part I read was roughly equal to two volumes.
And both of those went too quickly so now I need to find something else to read.
Ok, I’m finally done with 阿修羅ガール | L28. I can’t believe I read all 384 pages of that. It was maybe the most unenjoyable book that I’ve actually finished that I’ve read in a long while… I wouldn’t say I hated the entire book, but it really wasn’t for me. Side note: I am always bummed out when I don’t enjoy books that are not boring, but just not my style. I want to link it, gosh darn it!
Anyways, now I am moving on to 夏の終り | L35?? which is my longest 積読 book and also actually the first Japanese book I ever bought! I once found a very old out of print version of the English translation in a used bookstore (so old that it has the authors original name from before when she became a nun - which was apparently 1987), and thought I would very much like to read the original one day. We all know how Japanese bookstores are when you are a n00b, though. Finding a specific book feels like an impossible task when you’re illiterate (sometimes it still does, even though I’m less illiterate now…) and I was most certainly was back then. But, I was walking through a small neighborhood in Kansai one hot summer evening during my first week in Japan and stumbled across a tiny bookstore with some tables outside and guess which book was displayed?! That’s right! So, I bought it and then ended up not reading it for over a decade! I did make several attempts to read it throughout the ages but it too difficult every time. This time though, I’m flying! Did I finally git gud??
As for the plot, it is about a somewhat saucy and wistful love triangle (love square tbh) taking place during the post war Showa period. It is apparently based on the authors own life experiences which makes it all the more interesting. The writing is very elegant and melancholic, fitting the story well.
I’m looking forward to slowly reading it now after bringing the poor 文庫本 with me everywhere I moved for the last decade+.
I guess it had to do with the main character’s father dating and then marrying one of her classmates. Having the main character calling her お母さん for the rest of the book was not weird at all.
Except for those elements, I had a good time and it was indeed an extra silly 赤川次郎 book. I can see why people would consider it a light novel too.
Am I seeing this correctly that each chapter is released in 2-3 parts? And do you know if it’s a whole chapter at a time that’s free or just the two previous (before latest) parts? Those answers will influence whether I bother trying to keep up with serialization.
Yes that’s correct about 2-3 parts. Idk re: which stay free. Will have to wait for the 27th to find out. If I had to die, I don’t think 29 will stay free at that point… But that’s just a guess
Read this after picking it up at Book-Off, and wow it felt like a breeze compared to Jan 2023! Had to redo a lot of my gradings for it, bc I’d really been overestimating it. It’s a lot of fun, so decent chance I’ll binge the whole series soon
Another Yurihime monthly. If you want a story of two girls running a 葬儀屋, with a bit of supernatural and action elements, it might be for you! Update: I finished it, with very mixed feelings. Oddly it’s not the only story involving an undead girl that I’m reading. There’s also
Update: I finished vol 1, and it’s very fun - would definitely recommend!
Also started playing 崩壊:スターレイル, which involves quite a lot of reading and tons of sci-fi and JRPG vocab. The story dialogue has a decent amount of lookups, but doesn’t feel overwhelming. It is kinda i+2 or 3 though, so it’s not the most efficient for new vocab. A lot is repeated tho, so I think it will be beneficial overall. Just need to take it slowly
I finished くるまの娘 | L39, which got even harder (emotionally) to read in the second half. I’ll link to my review if anyone’s curious but suffice it to say the book was not for me.
On the other hand, I also finished the last volumes of 放浪息子 | L26, which were excellent! I really loved this series and I’m glad it stuck the landing at the end. It feels like a solid end to the story it’s trying to tell, but still gives all the characters hope and a bright path into the future. (Minor spoiler) I can’t stop thinking about 安那’s development over the last few volumes, she easily became my favorite character by the end. When she and シュウ first started dating I was worried because they seemed to have different ideas of what their relationship should be, but the way they grew closer together over the series and were able to talk more openly to each other makes me really hopeful for them. The way they’re both confident yet introverted in different ways is just so perfect.
I also finished Mr.マロウブルー【第4巻】 | L25, completing the series, but this volume felt kind of meh to me. Probably because it spent a lot of time tying up the plot threads that I didn’t really care for to begin with.
And just today I finished 図書館の大魔術師 3 | L28, which was good. This series feels like a perfectly distilled fantasy hero story, with an emphasis on moment-to-moment fun. I’m looking forward to picking up more of these. (I love the detailed art too, every panel must take forever to draw!)
With that, I’ve pretty much gotten though my manga backlog, so up next it’s time to get back to 本好き with volume 28! ((o(´∀｀)o))ﾜｸﾜｸ
My overall reading pace will slow down a lot compared to these last few months though, my free time is about to disappear on me again
I started reading 忘らるる物語 | L34?? which has been… interesting so far. I reminds me a lot of 鹿の王 in a way (heck, one of the main characters is even the [something something]鹿の女王), (spoiler for 鹿の王, I guess; in here, that’s established in the first couple of pages) where we have some kind of almost supernatural disease that confers to some people super powers while killing pretty much everyone else. The major difference is that (early spoiler, I guess) people who get superpowers are women who are in age to get periods (the vector is a parasitic mushroom that feeds on period blood ) and people who die are men. Technically, there’s no spread of the disease since men exposed literally melt away in a matter of seconds, while it takes a really long and intensive exposure to spores for women to get affected (so you apparently need to go stay for a while in the birthplace of those mushrooms to become a host).
(chapter 2 spoiler) One of the main characters, one of such superpowered women, mentions that it can be hard to recruit people since, while every women would want to be strong enough to not fear men, a surprising (? to her, I guess) number of them still want to be able to touch and be touched by men. There’s a bit of a secondhand horror story where she tells the tale of a former woman from the group who tried to convince her childhoodfriend to join; they talked for a while (<- important) but the friend eventually refuses, mentioning that she does not want to be parted from her infant sons. I think everyone can see where this is going: the friend then goes home, tries to kiss her kids goodnight, and they die in horrible pain due to the spores that gathered on her through the course of the conversation. So, turns out they aren’t welcome by everyone.
I’m not very far in the book, but I do like the writing style and the superpower parts so far, although I like physical contact with (some) men too much to ever want it for myself.
I’m on holiday finally so I read last available volumes at full speed It made me reconsider my current book clubs and drop one at least as completely not interesting in comparison.
Just read the first five pages of 隠れの子 東京バンドワゴン零 | L30?? which did a really good job of making me want to read more. Viewpoint character wakes up in the middle of the night and encounters a mysterious ghostlike entity…
I reached roughly halfway and it’s getting really annoying at this point, honestly.
Instead of focusing on super powered women doing cool stuff, we mostly follow another who, for plot reasons, travel through various countries under the umbrella of the empire and tells us how every men are bad, actually. I was okay with that until the moment we get to a country where the king is good in every way I can see, which includes (but not limited to) not looking down on women and especially making sure they are safe, can get ahead in society on their, etc. That sounded extremely nice to me, especially in the cultural context we’ve been given so far (in some places, women are basically cattle). Then a random character from the super women side shows up and tell the main character that no! this is a trap! Nice guys are bad actually because they lull you into a sense that it’s not so bad and make you forget that ALL men are your enemy or something!
That makes no sense to me. PLUS, he isn’t just nice on the surface; when the main character suggest to him to implement a clearly feminist idea, he says it’s a great idea and literally move to get it down. Now, he fails to implement it, which does seem to go with what the random character said… but honestly, without further spoiler, I would just say that the idea wasn’t well thought out (which is okay, the character just came up with it on the spot when the king asked for her advice because he values her opinion). It seems very easy to adapt it in a way that is much more actionable. It is still a patriarchy, so there’s obviously work to do if you wanted to reach equality, but honestly, even in real life, I take the pay gap over not being able to own property. It’s not perfect, but it sounds silly to imply that the former is “just as bad” as the latter.
I have two unrelated pet peeves about the book as well.
Rant incoming
Trying to keep it as spoiler free as possible, one character complains that entertainment is just a way to forget that life is garbage through catharsis. That way, those in power can remain there without challenge. I was okay with that analysis until the character said the solution is to KILL ALL MOST MEN (and keep the rest for reproduction, I guess). I’m pretty sure you’ll still have a small group of people in power oppressing the rest (just, they will be women instead). That kinda reminds me how the far right in real life is like “oh, you are suffering from the socio-economic conditions that arise from unbridled capitalism? The problem is immigration”, but “feminist” (heavy quotation marks) edition. Plus, the book is doing exactly the “bad” thing you are talking about, by providing a way to vicariously let out steam through turning guys into punching balls. So, by its own standard, the book is helping the patriarchy, I guess?
The main character still loves her son, despite the fact that he is apparently doomed to becoming bad, and it just makes no sense in context. Maybe it gets explored later, but so far, it’s stated straight, without incurring any cognitive dissonance in the main character… More generally, I don’t think it’s helpful that say to people that it doesn’t matter how they act, they are bad no matter what. What’s the point in doing anything, then? I’m not saying you should fawn over any guy that manages to clear the low low bar of not being a complete asshole, just, I don’t know, encourage them to get better?
I’ve been unconvinced by the biological mechanisms involved in there as well, but that’s barely relevant compared to everything above.
So, yeah, anyway, my enjoyment of the book has been dropping fast. I guess it doesn’t help that I don’t know if that’s what the author genuinely believes or if we get more nuances later on… It’s a bit sad, I liked the concept.
I did make several attempts to read it throughout the ages but it too difficult every time. This time though, I’m flying! Did I finally git gud?? 
It made me reconsider my current book clubs and drop one at least as completely not interesting in comparison.