I am slighty embarrassed to admit that I’ve once again gotten hooked on my (ostensibly for nostalgia’s sake) silly, shojo manga (伯爵カイン) re-read*. It is silly. It is melodramatic. It is repetitive. But it is the reading equivalent of a huge bowl of comforting spag bol. I’ve been dealing with some real life stressors and there’s something so soothing about going back to a manga you loved as a braceface teenager.
…and so my progress on my serious novels, by prize-winning, respected authors… has slowed considerably
And I’m not entirely embarrassed by enjoying this reread so much. The art IS beautiful. The characters are as likable as I remembered. And it’s so interesting to see British culture and history through a Japanese lens (I got a huge kick out of her writing フラット and then putting アパート next to it as furigana. Katakana furigana for a katakana word!) It’s interesting to see what things about your country an author finds interesting and what they clearly don’t. In this case, she’s clearly hugely enamoured with all the Sherlock Holmes, Alice in Wonderland, Brontë Sisters style dark and romantic side of England. No ugly people or much in the way of politics allowed! Big melodramatic scenes of horror and humour rather than Jane Austen style observations of social mores etc.
It’s a very Victorian gothic view of England, but the Japanese shojo style of the 1990s and 00s breaks through. I always laugh at how everyone has gorgeous flowing shojo hair that reaches their arses, rather than those fussy Victorian updo hairstyles (except occasionally she’ll have fun drawing a character with crazy ringlets). The clothes are much softer and prettier than the real thing Victorians would have worn. And even her homeless children or down and out sex worker characters are impeccably turned out in spotless clothes at all times.
Currently I’m on the volumes she wrote before taking a multi-year break from Cain to write Angel Sanctuary (her shojo manga magnum opus). But I remember the volumes I loved and the chapters I went to the Japanese bookshop every month for (or two months? two weeks? I can’t remember Hana to Yume’s release schedule) were the post-Angel Sanctuary chapters when her art and storytelling skills had really improved. I cannot wait to get up to those bits, I adored them as a thirteen-year-old.
*although as a tween I had read it in English/stared at my Japanese copies reading the odd sentece.
I love it! Furigana can be such a fun feature of Japanese when authors use it creatively (Kaori Yuki is particularly obsessed in all her work) and it must be sad for translators who have to throw it away entirely in the English versions.
(But also yes I’m old and the text… please it’s so small)
I started another of the short stories from 奥羽の二人 | L38?? . I think I managed about seven pages in an hour of reading… The author loves obscure words and also the story is full of proper names of historical figures and locations, none of which have furigana, so it’s impossible to read without doing a ton of lookups. I feel like it’s probably harder than 吾輩は猫である | L48 so maybe once I’ve graded it it will count for my “higher natively level than anything you’ve read before” bingo square…assuming I finish it, of course.
After more than 3 years, I have finally finished https://learnnatively.com/series/70e7020599/ and its 外伝 7SEEDS 外伝 | L30
Note that the 外伝 happens right after the end of the series and ties up some of the loose ends. It’s definitely part of the series (despite being separate on Natively)
Out of the 3+ years, most of the time was spent waiting for the next batch of volumes, as my local library bundled the 36 total volumes into 3 sets, with an average of a 1 year waiting list each.
I really liked the series overall. Most characters are well developed and interesting and the plot is great. I did find the story a bit slow towards the end though. The last 12 volumes batch cover a single thing. Every time, something happens that prevents progress (or revert some that has been made). I understand that it’s an SF thriller, but it grows old when a roof collapse for the 50th time separating characters and forcing them to go around/threatens to kill some of them.
Also, the series has a strong focus on romantic polygons (we aren’t at the level of triangles anymore), which was great… but suddenly collapses at the end. I mean, the story has to end at some point, but still that felt anticlimactic.
Dark yuri that recently restarted in 百合姫. It’s gonna be annoying tho, cuz vol 1 is is ch 1-5, but the next 3 chapters are somewhere in the 2023 magazines
Well… technically after (for the first three sentences)
I’m a bit more than 100 pages in now and the plot makes no sense at all?? I did recognize the reference to pulp fiction and immediately thought of the big Lebowski when the finger was mentioned and got really surprised when it turned out アイコ made the same connection.
When 陽治 mentioned that someone in love with her, my first thought was that it’s her chance to ask him to go with her to the same hotel “to lure the culprit out” or something. But I think her reaction makes sense
Anyway, I am glad you brought that book to my attention so far… I’m just afraid of the 2* you gave it.
I also finished volume 18 of https://learnnatively.com/series/259dfe6881/ and it is such a cute series, I’m sad to be caught up with publication. Hopefully volume 19 comes out soon (and the series keep going forever… although I have a bad feeling that it will stop with them graduating…)
I finished 怒り and I really, really enjoyed it. I needed a good emotional gut punch and it delivered My review is here, but basically it’s a multi-MC mystery surrounding a runaway murderer. Unlike 正体 (which I’ve left half finished and may never return to…) which is also about multi-MC about a runaway murderer, the characters were felt very fleshed out and not stereotypical. I like getting icky, complicated feelings from books sometimes, and it made me feel 'em.
Maybe I’ll finish 正体 eventually since it was just the audiobook, but lord was I frustrated by it 怒り felt like a redemption of the genre.
I’ve also been slowing plodding through 三面記事から見る 戦前のエロ事件 | L30?? since each case is only a handful of pages. It’s not what I would call high-brow reading, but there is something fun about being reminded of the crassness of historical people
The comments about that book are making me want to read it too (though I have a feeling it’s too high for me just yet and I would be even more confused than you all have been
My review is 
