So, the expression itself means something like “extremely direct” (Google gives me “brutally honest” as a translation… that’s maybe more natural in English but it doesn’t exactly fit)
The image is that, in normal conversation, you would have a container (and it’s lid) put around the thing that you want to say, ie, you would use some coating or a round about way to say things.
Here, by there being no 身 (container), I actually mean there’s no context. So stuff literally do not make sense because you just get the sketch as is, without the reason behind it.
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Ah, very interesting. I never thought of 身 meaning the container that the 蓋 is for.
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I finished 箱男 | L41 a few days ago and it was…uh…one of the weirdest things I’ve ever read (yes, weirder than 阿修羅ガール)…but I think I liked it? There was so much going on in this book but 安部公房 somehow pulled it off! I don’t think I’ve ever read a book that deals with the idea of looking vs. being looked at and nakedness like 箱男 did and it felt like a completely fresh insight and made me consider the topic in ways I haven’t before.
I started the audiobook of 池袋ウエストゲートパーク | L31 and so far it’s fun! Mystery shorts and dark Tokyo gang vibes. I’m a sucker for any stories involving gang or yakuza dynamics.
I also started the audiobook of https://learnnatively.com/book/a6de532465/and gosh, there’s just something cozy about 原田マハ books about art and Paris. 
I haven’t enjoyed any of her books that I’ve read that set in Japan, but the ones involving art history and Europe are so fun. This is reminding me of 楽園のカンヴァス or Japanese Books Difficulty List | Natively (which I enjoyed a lot more than the 3 star rating I gave it indicates). I think my thing with her is that she does plot development very slowly which I generally find frustrating, but all the nuggets about art history or being a stranger in a strange land are very fun for me.
Lastly I started トラペジウム | L34??, which I had a random paperback of laying around. It is very firmly young adult and would probably be a good read for someone who wants an early level 30s slice of life book? The author was a popular idol from Nogizaka46, so it’s interesting reading a story about becoming an idol written by an idol.
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only 8% in, but so far feels easy moderately difficult and exciting - since this is past the anime story, and starting off with a group 旅行
Probably gonna start this… I read a little bit of it ages ago, but it wasn’t on the site then
Starting now, with the CLAMP book club!
Others:
- 裏世界ピクニック 1 ふたりの怪異探検ファイル | L32 - in lessons. 31% in & enjoying
- 義妹生活 | L30 - in procrastination mode rn
Rereads:
- クラスで2番目に可愛い女の子と友だちになった2 | L27 - I’ve been swapping btwn the physical and web novel. They’re just different enough to be interesting.
- 君に紡ぐ傍白 2 | L21 - whenever I’m in the mood
- 雨でも晴れでも 2 | L24 - with the book club
It feels like I’m reading 声優ラジオ faster than クラにか, and I’m wondering if that’s bc I’m reading on my tablet? If so, then I’ll probably start giving preference to reading on tablet again, I guess? The gap isn’t huge tho, and I think it’s mostly that lookups are so much quicker
Otoh, now that I’m getting a bit further in: sometimes I get it, and sometimes it’s あまりピンと来ない
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I just realized that I’m in the middle of 27 manga series, only 7 of which are finished publishing. After excluding the series I’ll be finishing soon or plan to drop, that’s still 18 series. I’m caught up on most of these, so it’s a lot of waiting. 
I plan to order more manga in the next month or so to move forward with three series I’ve barely started, so in the meantime I’ve just been knocking out a lot of my physical manga backlog. Main goal right now is to continue making progress on こみっくがーるず | L25 (reading volume 6 now, but will take a short break before continuing after that) and to get back to 青い花 | L26 (halfway through). At some point I’ll actually need to start 満月をさがして | L24 since that’s my longest unstarted series right now, but I’m not sure when I’ll do that.
For digital, I do need to finish ウスズミの果て 1 | L27 (which I will do, but it’s not super interesting), read 夜の名前を呼んで 5 | L23 to wrap up the series (despite my complaints about the end of volume 4, it’s a cute series overall), and start 魔法騎士レイアース 新装版 1 | L22 for the book club.
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Huuurrrgh. Finished my WK Readathon day! It was a lot of fun; I ended up going the manga route after much soul-searching; thanks again to everyone and their input in the “what do I read next” thread. 
Here are my results, in the order I read them:
Hours total: 10 hours, 8 minutes
| Book | # of pages read | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| ホテル・メッツァペウラへようこそ 1巻 | L22 | 208 pgs | Read full volume. Was hoping to read the second as well, but didn’t quite have time. |
| D.Gray-man 9 | L25 | 209 pgs | Read full volume |
| ハリー・ポッターと秘密の部屋 | L31 | 31 pgs | Read one chapter |
| H・Kドラグネット 1 | L24?? | 53 pgs | Read one chapter; wanted to read more, but it took me like an hour to read just this one… |
| 赤髪の白雪姫1 | L26 | 183 pgs | Read full volume; @暁のルナ |
| 椎名くんの鳥獣百科 1 | L24?? | 176 pgs | Read full volume |
| Total: | 860 pgs |
I lost a little bit of time due to an errand I had to run, but not bad overall. ^o^ My brain is leaking out of my ears, send help. I will definitely write a review for all the books I finished except DGM 9, but it’ll take me a day or two.
Favorite book I read: 椎名くんの鳥獣百科 1 | L24??
Least favorite? None, they were all good. D:
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That sounds exhausting 
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I’m pretty tired after it’s all said and done, haha. But I knew ahead of time that my Saturday is going to be devoted to something else, which will in turn tire me out so much that Sunday is going to be a lazy day. So I’ll have plenty of time to recover my reading brain.
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Seems like you were kind mixed on it? Curious to hear more
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I finished 蹴りたい背中 | L31 in one day since it was short and also I’m (loosely) participating in the WK readathon.
It was a solid 3 for me. Didn’t hate it, but not the book for me. It’s the second book by this author that I’ve been “almost but not quite” about and I wonder if her writing style just isn’t quite my taste.
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Finished 声優ラジオのウラオモテ #04 夕陽とやすみは力になりたい? | L28 - enjoyable enough, tho I will take a break before vol 5
出会い系サイトで妹と出会う話 | L20 - someone described it as “the most wholesome incest yuri”. I tried a bit, It was cute, but it felt a little too fast/easy, and I wasn’t convinced I wanted to spend money on it now. I might try it again in the future.
Finished 姉の親友、私の恋人。 1 | L25 - it’s been in my library for almost a year. So far the story is about the MC coping with romantic feelings for her sister, and becoming her sister’s best friend’s girlfriend, in the process. It’s a serious take on things, and both leads, plus the side characters are enjoyable. Definitely going to continue with this series!
Tried わたしが恋人になれるわけないじゃん、ムリムリ! (※ムリじゃなかった!?) 1 | L24 again, and it still felt like a drag. I don’t like the smug, “can’t take no far an answer” love interest, and the humor felt dull.
鋼の錬金術師 1 | L30 - nice to read something with furigana for a change! I might end up buying the physicals next month
「触れたい」は恋の始まり - new series, cute and silly
私だけが宮地美雪を愛している 1 | L20 - silly yuri harem. MC proposed to a bunch of ppl as a kid, but forgot, and now they want her to choose. I’m usually iffy on harems, but based on the first chapter, I might like it… We’ll see. Update: I finished, it was just okay
Mostly through 百合姫2024年11月号 | L24??
百合姫2024年11月について感想
- ささやくように恋を唄う | L22 - amazing as always, and I’m really excited for where it’s heading
- 大室家 & ゆるゆり - same as ever
- 君が吠えるため歌を - great new series about a singer with a husky voice, and her favorite musician (who is clearly head over heels for her)
- 今日はカノジョがいないから | L22 - this chapter was a serious disappointment, really cringe writing
- 嘘から始まる恋の夏 - new series, based on a visual novel of the same name. It’s really interesting. Starts off with a student interested in their teacher - but the twist is she gets rejected… Eventually meeting her future love interest later
- I’m 2 hrs into the VN, and the manga starts in a different place. There both interesting so far. To be clear, it’s not a student-teacher story, despite the intro
- 僕らのアイは気持ち悪い - fascinating new series, and the title fits perfectly
- ひかりのすむところ - one shot, haven’t read yet
- 彩純ちゃんはレズ風俗に興味があります! | L23 - I wasn’t too into this chapter. Maybe just my mood rn
- カナリアは綺羅星の夢をみる - haven’t read yet
- 嫌われ魔女令嬢と男装皇子の婚約 | L25 - haven’t read yet
- 恋人の下の名前が呼べなくて困ってます - one shot, haven’t read yet
魔法騎士レイアース 新装版 1 | L22 - 1st 1/3rd was mildly boring, but seems like it might become interesting, one things are out of setup.
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I’d say I enjoyed it! I liked 白雪’s characterization, and I liked how she and ゼン had what felt like a fairly realistic friendship. I was a bit surprised that the volume ended with her taking the royal apothecary exam already; felt pretty soon for that. Most of the bad guys we encountered had a bad case of same face syndrome, I thought; I couldn’t tell half the time if this new bandit was a new guy or a previous one.
I guess what less to my 3* is that, despite thinking that this first volume was a nice volume, it never really went beyond “nice” for me; I don’t know that I feel any extra interest in reading more. Perhaps if more of an overarching plot kicks in later?
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Maybe, but that’s really just the very beginning of things.
Pretty sure there will be lots of overarching plot kicking in, starting next volume, fwiw. I don’t seem to have written reviews for these volumes for some reason, so I can’t say 100%.
Apparently this is one of two volumes I gave a 4 instead of a 5. So I guess I also felt not quite as moved, Edit: or I might have nocked a point wrt realism - specifically stuff at the castle seemed way too lax. (The other 4 star volume was simply because it was primarily backstory, and I get really bored with backstory). Anyway, glad you enjoyed
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I ended up continuing Comic Girls without a break after all. Read volume 7 (which is finally past what I had read originally back in 2020) in one day yesterday, and read a bit of volume 8 today. At this point I will probably just read through the end (volume 9) and then find something else to read from there.
The main problem now is that I’m basically out of long-running Kirara series again. I own the first volume digitally for a whole bunch of 2-3 volume series that I got on sale a while back, but there’s not much to choose from for longer series to buy physically at this point. The long ones left that I haven’t tried would be あっちこっち, ゆゆ式, スロウスタート, ひだまりスケッチ, and Aチャンネル. But none of those have leapt out to me as something I’d really enjoy.
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I finished 点と線 early as I wanted it out of the way before my trip (I wrote down my thoughts for the upcoming week before finishing it though!) and then was left with the choice to either finish one of the books I have in progress… Or start something new. So naturally I grabbed another book from the 推理カルテ series off my shelf and started in on it 神話の密室 天久鷹央の事件カルテ | L34 for those interested. I’m reading out of order now but order doesn’t matter much for this series. The “first” book chronologically was I think the fifth one I read 
If nothing else I’ve been in a physical book mood lately so I’m making quite the dent in my physical TBR although my digital one remains of mythical proportions…
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Reviews written!
- eefara's review of 赤髪の白雪姫1 | Natively
- eefara's review of 椎名くんの鳥獣百科 1 | Natively
- eefara's review of ホテル・メッツァペウラへようこそ 1巻 | Natively
Fun fact: I currently have the most number of active books I’ve ever had on my reading pile at once. @.@ 9 entire books:
Granted, I’m not actively reading that last one, but it’s been hanging around long enough… Most of those are book club books; normally I like keep the list somewhat smaller, but there’s a whole bunch of manga on there nowadays.
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Wrt fairy tale references - as you suspected, there’s no more depth there. It’s literally just the author liking the name/general image
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Okay, good to hear! It’s not a deal-breaker for me one way or another, but I figured it might be for some people.
Glancing at the book page, I have to ask: how accurate is that “male harem” tag?
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Yeah that’s why I mentioned, cuz I’ve seen some ppl go in expecting that, and then be disappointed.
Depending on how you define harem, putting it at 20% seems accurate. Pretty minor spoiler: putting the initial idiot prince aside, there’s 1-2 other characters who show interest in Shirayuki at some point. There is also a 2nd female character who has two characters interested in her - which has some really interesting writing that you’ll either love or hate. Personally, I wouldn’t think to describe the series that way at all, if you hadn’t asked me about it.
The love triangle tag is more relevant, and there’s a really interesting development to it. More significant spoiler: There is a 2nd character who is very interested in Shirayuki, and Zen is very aware of (and fine with) this. Major spoilers: Obi is eventually assigned as Shirayuki’s bodyguard, and also develops serious romantic feelings for Shirayuki. Zen is very aware of this (otoh Shirayuki doesn’t seem to notice), and seriously trusts him - both with Shirayuki’s safety, and not making a move. Obi seemingly also has romantic feelings for Zen (or at least very deep love and loyalty), and tells him as much, when they discuss the whole thing
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Ah, thank you for the insight! That does all sound pretty interesting.
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