I just finished 1R1分34秒 | L32 , about a struggling boxer.
It’s probably a pretty good book, but something about lots of introspection/pondering kinda puts me off books when I’m reading in Japanese.
It was definitely was an interesting insight into boxing though, although I can’t say it made me want to be a boxer. Between pinning all your hopes on 1 big fight, also risking head injury, and crazy eating routines, it doesn’t sound appealing to me .
I’ve just started ひとり日和 | L30 which feels very light and fresh. It’s about a 20year old moving into an old relatives house in Tokyo. Am very early in, but it does feel like the main character has some nuance, so it’s not as completely predictable as it sounds.
It was also interesting reading a sports book which wasn’t as heartwarming/cheery as a lot of sports novels.
(I think there’s definitely a film script like style to a lot of sports novels)
Overcoming your weakness and winning with the power of friendship! I’m in the mood for that sometimes but I appreciated that 1R1分34秒 was a different take on that for sure.
I read a manga featuring serial killers, and they mean it most of the time: 天空侵犯 1. The series is finished.
Edit: the preview of volume #1 contains more than half of the manga: 100+ pages. So if you are in doubt you can get a good impression.
For me it was an extremely easy read, with just one lookup per 10 pages, which for me is e.g. easier than the usual Yotsuba manga. But no guarantee that it doesn’t get more difficult in later volumes.
Btw, the manga needs a lower limit grading to loose it’s preliminary grading at 13??.
It’s a pretty cute yuri, tho there are some parts that portray some pretty messed up violence (not btwn the couple). Interestingly it has an age gap, but the younger character is 18, and not in high school. So that’s a nice change from many other series.
Things that have stopped surprising me in yuri: age gap, incest, student teacher relationships … to be fair, it’s not like those are limited to yuri
It’s been a while again since I made an update (busy with work and life).
I recently read 伯爵と妖精 花嫁修業は薔薇迷宮で | L30 (and by recently I mean I finished it more than a week ago). I don’t know if it’s because I haven’t read anything from that series in like a year2 years and a half, but the writing felt better than before. It’s still very much a light novel, but I enjoyed it a lot.
Then, for no particular reason, I started reading the free volumes of 転生したらスライムだった件 | L34 that I got a while back. On the one hand, the idea of a genderless blob of matter as main character is appealing to me. On the other hand, the main character is clearly male coded, has most of the issues main characters have in those kind of series (although not to an unbearable level), and the series exhibits a lot of fantasy misogyny. Because magic or different species, women are explicitly said to be as strong as men, are shown in positions of power, etc (that’s the fantasy part) BUT still get treated differently. Like, why evacuate “the women and the children” when at least a large chunk of your army is made of women? The words “civilians” or “non-combatant” were right there. Does it also mean that non-combatant guys are just left behind? Or forcefully conscripted on the spot? Even then, by the world logic, that means you would conscript units that are weaker than those you are evacuating… The most obnoxious is the “evolution” mechanic where guys get beefier/stronger and women get bewbs (even if they are reptiles like the lizard(wo)men; what are those made of??). Speaking of that, the main character is supposed to have no sexual desire due to their (his?) biology, but spends a lot of time looking at breasts. Special credits to the succession of “ボーイン” going on for a full line of text. Very descriptive; now that’s writing skills
Still, because it’s text, it feels slightly less obnoxious than the manga (the first volume was free to read). The fighting parts are also decent but not exceptional.
I have to say, there’s only one true reason why I am reading this series. (Minor spoiler, which I already knew about from pop culture anyway)The main character has an androgynous human form (with no genitals), so in theory he could get not just all the girls (which is trite), but all the guys as well (which is relevant to my interests). In fact, one (comedic relief) male character expressed out loud interest (before getting beaten up by the main character, but still) which gave me unreasonable hopes. Since the main character can be seen as a cute girl too, I feel like it wouldn’t clash with the target readership of the series, right??
Me:
(But yeah, that part annoys me too. Especially with the reptile people. Luckily the anime also has a ton going for it, so… still one of my favs, for all its faults. I’m just a sucker for anything that has a good balance between state building, politics and fighting, even if the protagonist is… uh, slightly OP.)
Well, I finished the 3rd volume, which was the one I was the most weary about due to the cover. Behold.
It was somewhat funny to read in the あとがき about the decision to make that character “エロ可愛い”, in departure from the web novel version. After seeing the cover, the author apparently panicked a bit and asked the editor if it wasn’t too much… but the editor said it was “completely fine”. I would disagree but what do I know. In particular, as far as I can tell, the “kawai” part comes from her looking like a 14 years old and acting like a kid (but it’s all okay because she is a thousands years old dragon™). I hate this trope so much…
Speaking of tropes I hate, at some point the main character thinks
どこの世界でも、男とは女に利用される生き物なのだなとしみじみ思った。
in response to 2 guys carrying the stuff of the 2 girls with them. It doesn’t even make sense in context, since one of the girls in the group is physically the strongest of the group. In a world where there’s no obvious strength difference between genders, why would you develop that kind of practice?
Otherwise, the plot wasn’t exceptional, but enjoyable enough. If not for the points above and those in my previous message, I would probably have graded this book 4*, but I have to downgrade it to 3. Not enough to justify buying the rest of the series, but it is available from my local library so I may continue it someday. My current ship is ヨウムxリムル. Although I have very little hope, I need to know if they meet up again.
That’s fine, since he (?) isn’t the only one. I like battles between OP characters.
Haha this one is on my bingo card for terrible cover. It’s not only just bad it also doesn’t fit with the characters personality or the plot… What a bizarre choice.
IIRC a lot of the more annoying stuff peters out over time.
Are you telling me that “could anyone give Milim some damn clothes, please” was in the cards, and it wasn’t done against the author’s wishes because the editor didn’t want the cover to be redrawn?
It’s “fan service” in its most blatant form - it’s only for the viewer. She doesn’t act like someone who’d choose that outfit (thank god). It never plays a role in the anime either, at least as far as I can remember (thank god). I’m not even sure if there’s ever any reaction to it. She is not flirty; nobody flirts with her; nobody thinks of her that way. It’s just an incredibly misguided fan service attempt completely divorced from any other part of the character and plot. You could change how she is drawn in the anime and leave everything else completely the same, and nobody would bat an eye.
I quite like her, but could anyone give Milim some damn clothes, please?
Yesterday I finished 宝島 by Stevenson, which I always wanted to re-read. Looking at the German version on my shelf, which I read in my youth, with its loose pages and spine, I must have read it several times back then. It was more difficult than I thought, with its nautical terms, but that‘s also why I wanted to read it now in Japanese. Also I discovered that the German version was incomplete, leaving out some repetitions (it also was originally serialized in some magazine ) and bloody scenes.
Now I come back to the book that sent me in my last slump クラスで2番目に可愛い女の子と友だちになった. If I had gotten it for free, I would’ve just stopped it giving it one or two stars , but as I spent money on it, it’ll get a second chance.
found this thing and it reminds me of those “hang in there” posters with a cat on them lol
major “things that should be printed in A3 and hang somewhere in the house for a bad day” vibes
ペルシャ猫の謎 by 有栖川有栖。It’s a short story collection of mysteries, and the only thing that carries across each story is the detectives’ names. It’s part of a larger series as well, but it still works as a standalone.
This is actually the first ever Japanese novel I purchased a long time ago by my friend’s recommendation, but I couldn’t really read it at the time, and I’m only now revisiting it. Even though I have an N1 I’m finding the vocabulary to be pretty punishing and a lot harder than the novel I just read before (which I also liked more).
Since I just got to the end of the second story, I might put it down for a bit (doesn’t matter because they’re all standalones)
.
) and bloody scenes.
, but as I spent money on it, it’ll get a second chance.
