Yesterday, on top of finishing 十二秘色のパレット 第1巻 | L23?? (and deciding that I won’t continue that series), I went with good ol’ reliable and read ~30 pages of 地獄くらやみ花もなき 肆 百鬼疾る夜行列車 | L31 (the series that teaches you old kanji for numbers; I saw the cover of another volume randomly and was incapable of telling which one it was… 肆 [this volume] I know, but 捌…)
青児 said a thing to 皓 that made my heart go キュン and ended up staring at nothing for about an hour. Then, coming back to my senses, I read a little bit more and 青児 changed to his nice suit from volume 2 and I stopped in my tracks again 
I feel like it’s going to be a slow read.
This volume seems much more involved in terms of mystery. We even get a map of the premise with the name of everyone and everything!
ロンリーガールに逆らえない | L21 which I last read in Feb 2023! Looks like it was my 5th yuri series (やがて君になる | L21, 加瀬さんシリーズ | L18, 雨でも晴れでも | L23, はなにあらし | L19, ロンリガール, ささやくように恋を唄う | L21)
It’s nice reading something light, fast, and fun 
that feels like it just breezes by. It feels a little predictable at times, but it has some nice humor too. It sorta makes me want to try 不登校の幼馴染が学校に行く条件は、毎日俺とキスすることだった | L27 (which was my first JP book I finished), since they have a similar gimmick (though that one is quite a bit heavier). Not planning to, just feeling nostalgic.
I bought all the volumes of CCS way back, but abandoned it on vol 10 because I kept getting annoyed by the [elementary school] student-teacher relationships lol. I started カードキャプターさくら 11 | L20 at work today in the hopes that I can power through the last two volumes and be done with the series. I’m only reading it for Touya x Yukito and Tomoyo at this point.
Reading a manga with student-teacher relationships while at work is a bold move.
I looked at starting a new 4-koma I own digitally today since it’s only one volume. But turns out it was canceled and is incomplete with a handful of chapters past the end of volume one, so I’m not going to waste my time on that. Guess I’ll have to find another 4-koma to read. I have plenty digitally I got on steep sale a while ago, but I’m not sure what to pick. Physically I don’t have much to choose from right now. Maybe I’ll make a poll later.
What’s the title, by the way?
It’s always sad when stuff get cancelled or the end has to be rushed…
It was ななつ神オンリー! 1 | L24??
The まんがタイムきららミラク magazine was shut down around the same time, so presumably that manga was too new or not popular enough to get moved to another of their magazines like うらら迷路帖 and a few others were.
I always felt うらら迷路帖’s ending was rushed and I associate it with the magazine change (whether true or not). It still ended fine, but definitely felt like it covered a lot of story in the last 1-2 volumes.
Mmm. I’m still a bit sad that 藤生’s アンダー・ワン・ルーフ died when Hirari shut up shop, and it just stopped on a bit of a cliffhanger. It never got a book publication either.
… Well, considering I finished it yesterday, it ended up not being a slow read.
As the map prompted, this time we get a true honest murder mystery (I’m putting that behind spoiler, but, seriously, what else would you expect from this type of books?). The trick was really good and felt realistic too. There’s no “the culprit did perfectly silently eight billion things in the half second they distracted everyone by pointing at the sky and asking if it was Superman”. The fact I completely missed it is definitely on me (and I enjoyed it very much).
On the BL-related front, there were also very satisfying moments.
My favorite one was when (keeping spoilers to a minimum)
青児 says something really sweet to 皓 who finally truly smiles instead of his usual 胡散臭い smile, giving 青児 the vision of a white botan (牡丹; peony? I don’t know flowers in English) blossoming, prompting him to remark:
地獄のくらやみに花が咲くのと同じかもしれない
Reverse title drop! I can’t do justice to that moment, and that’s for the best. Read the book.
The last 50 pages, after the mystery is wrapped up, were a bit weaker, though. The author just solves all remaining dangling plot issues from the series and wraps up.
According to the あとがき, the author originally envisioned the whole plot of the series to be in four books, only writing the first one as a standalone just in case things stopped there… but the series is so popular that he will keep writing.
I wonder if things are more standalone from this point on, now that the big overarching plot is solved, or if he just establishes a new arc?
Anyway, that’s a great point to stop with this series, so I’ll focus on finishing my bingo card until the end of the year instead 
I also just read 瞳ちゃんは人見知り 1 | L18 during my lunch break. I got it on my wishlist a few days ago when Booklive recommended it to me (because the first two volumes are free to read, I assume).
It’s your average rom com with a large breasted love interest. The MC is boring as hell; why is she hanging out with him to begin with, let alone why is she apparently developing feelings for him. Like, I don’t mind horny writing but give me something, anything? The MC doesn’t have to be the literal sun like 太陽 from https://learnnatively.com/book/bd48d0853c/ just give him a modicum of personality, maybe? No? I guess not.
No no, you’re missing the point. If the main male character has a personality, the teenage male target audience won’t be able to insert themselves into the story as if they were the main character.
But he is a short average-looking doormat. I would feel insulted. At least they should make him (and those MCs in general) hot? I feel like that would be a great fantasy to have for the target audience and also relevant to my interests equal opportunities fan service.
Yeah, I think your logic here is why you’re not the target demographic. 
book inches up a few more places in the TBR pile
Considering there’s already four more books published, I’m also curious if the author further embrace the BL, and I haven’t even read anything.
(Not really spoiler)皓 says that he doesn’t want to do “adult stuff” (talking about work in context, but you know) until he is 鬼 legal age, which will take another 100 years. Sooo, I kinda feel like they’ll just keep making suspiciously sweet smiles at each other and just remain “good friends who would literally throw away their lives to save the other”. I’d love to be wrong though.
Aaaah, the ol’ can’t commit author tactic. Ah well; death of the author and all.
When you all order from Surugaya and talk about the free shipping promotions, how does that work? I’ve still never bought from them so I’m not entirely sure how it works. I see a few sets I might be interested in, but it’s confusing. It says “999円以上お買上げで送料無料”, but then when you expand the details it says you need to spend much more than that to get free shipping (and also those are only broken down by regions within Japan). How can I confirm an item is eligible for free shipping to the U.S.? Also, does it only apply to items sold directly by Surugaya or does it include third party sellers? Also, when the promotion is active, does the free shipping apply to new items as well? I don’t know why I find this website so confusing.
They run promotions weekly (more than that?) that will apply free shipping automatically. It’s usually on the first banner of the home page when there’s a shipping promo on. Honestly it feels like it’s 2 days on 2 days off these days. I usually put things in my cart and check every day or so until the shipping promo is back on.
I don’t know about how shipping works for third party sellers.
Edit: make sure you’re on suruga-ya.com and not .jp which is their domestic site.
Oh have I been doing it backwards? I thought I had to be on the jp one. 
Well that will explain it
I got suspicious when I realized that I had never seen any third party items before.
