Same in this case - but they will not do returns and I’d need a formal complaint for what amounts to visual discoloration and damage because the overpowering scent is not possible to convey otherwise. Though they said it was in excellent condition - my whole room smells of this perfume even when a few of the books are out of their sealed box.
When it comes to damaged goods - I usually get sun damaged or trivial flaws from Japan, both things I am completely fine with. Older series are going to have flaws and the fact I can get them for $2~ a book is good. I’ve gotten some series for about $1 a book even! Including shipping.
I finished ひとり日和 | L30 , which I enjoyed. A couple of things I found funny,
The story’s about a 20y/o moving to Tokyo in 70y/o family member’s spare room, and a there’s a lot of shock that the 70y/o おばあちゃん goes on dates/generally has a life going on. Which I found funny, 70 isn’t that old!
And also, it’s another book separated into 春、夏、秋、冬 and an afterword of 春 again, with 桜 just starting to bloom at each side. (I’m starting to think this should be a subgenre, the number of times it’s used)
Next up was ギョ 1 | L26 、which I really enjoyed. It’s kinda gruesome, kinda silly, but overall you can tell it’s been done to a really high quality. And I’m not sure what exactly, but the setting/story does give me turn of the century nostalgia. Maybe it’s just the reliance on the news broadcast cutting in on TV every once in a while.
Finally, I finished 星の子 | L27 , which was good, but not as magical as some of Imamura’s other works. I did really like the ending though (although reading bookmeter reviews after, I got the sense that a lot of people disliked the ending )
Left a review before I got to the main problem ones - I did check for all the volumes originally, but the main problem was covered up by the packing and the fact the outer cover doesn’t discolor the same way. Oh well… house smells good? Just I need a fan or to cover my face to read the books. I hope I am through the damaged vols soon.
Lately I’ve been bingeing 熱帯魚は雪に焦がれる | L24 and 毎月庭つき大家つき | L26, with two and one volumes left respectively. The latter is just a cute and fluffy yuri romance, while the former is a bit heavy at times due to its recurring theme of loneliness.
I also started 性別不明な殺し屋さんがカワイすぎる。 1 | L24?? a couple weeks ago but haven’t made much progress since I’ve been bingeing the other series. I happened to notice that another series by that mangaka has the same 性別不明 theme. (Amazon.co.jp: 性別不明な中性僕っ子とお姉さん (MFC) eBook : つみきつき: Kindle Store). At first it was on my radar for that theme and being full color, but the synopsis is basically “middleschooler has crush on 26 year old woman” and I’m just like whyyyyy.
I meant that I don’t know about the production volume per year. For manga, 2 out of everything coming out in a year is nothing. For anime, it’s question mark.
In any case, my gut feeling is that it would still put it in the “uncommon” category (regardless of the fantasy caveat)
Been meandering through various yuri LNs and manga recently - with different levels of good and bad
Manga:
〆切前には百合が捗る 1 | L25 - a decent enough adaptation in the end. But I really recommend the novels over the manga. The only thing I think works better in the manga is you have visuals for all the food, location, shopping products, etc names. The handwriting has furigana!!
三角形の壊し方 1巻 (U-NEXT Comic) | L20 - I caught up with this. Wouldn’t particularly recommend it (particularly b/c of age gap stuff), but I’m interested enough to keep reading for now
リリー&アイビー ~ケンカップル百合×性愛アンソロジー~ | L22 - finally read and enjoyed this. Not as intense as I was worried it might be. There is one story w/ some light physical fighting, and some stuff without questionable consent, but I was expecting that.
アンドロイドは経験人数に入りますか?? | L21 (NSFW) - trashy ecchi romcom that I have zero expectations for. Just reading cuz it’s in Yurihime monthly
LNS:
わたしの百合も、営業だと思った? | L28 - I’m glad I picked this up again. Wholesome, moderate and tasteful, good pacing, nothing weird/offputting. Everybody is an adult (youngest character is 21 or 22 iirc). Overall enjoyable read. As 声優 stuff goes, it’s no 声優ラジオのウラオモテ | L28 - but it was still pretty decent. Could have utilized its hook a bit more, but no big deal
白百合さんかく語りき。 | L28 - I wanted to like this, and may give it a second chance, but I’ve just found it really uninteresting the whole time. Only got 27 pgs in.
私の初恋相手がキスしてた | L32?? - same author as 安達としまむら | L30. It started off w/ a domestic violence scene… but then proceeded to be about the MC adjusting to this girl and her mother suddenly moving in to their already small apartment. Anyway I’m not far in, but so far the girls’ relationship feels pretty realistic, and I can kinda relate to both of them. That said, I find it a little hard to follow what’s going on sometimes, with all the internal monologue, and I think this author is probably a good challenge for me
人妻教師が教え子の女子高生にドはまりする話 | L30 - same author. Very on the fence with this, since it’s a subject/setting I’m already really uncomfortable with. But I picked it up, both to try pushing my own boundaries, and because it seems like it might be an interesting take on it. Anyway, not committed to it at this point
Otherwise I started the JP translation for Tower of God, which so far is easy. But we’ll see in a chapter or two. Have managed not to drop 神様たちのお伊勢参り | L30?? yet, tho I’m terribly behind. Think I’m starting to enjoy 魔法騎士レイアース 新装版 2 | L22 finally, and 雨でも晴れでも 3 | L24 is going ok, but I’m looking forward to finishing it in a few weeks. I like the series in general, but it’s not a good week-by-week series for me, personally. It’s the sorta thing where I’d prefer to read all 3 volumes in 1 sitting
Well, I am having a good time overall, so I think I’m not dropping it.
There are some scenes that I found a bit hard to stomach and stopped me in my tracks (mostly police brutality; this is pretty much ACAB, the movie: the book™), so I won’t be reading it at the pace of @bungakushoujo, but I will finish it.
Overall I enjoyed the series. The only rough part was the volume or two where Konatsu and Koyuki were both lonely but not communicating properly, simply because it was sad and not as enjoyable to read. I do think I would have preferred the series if it were an actual romance, but since I went in knowing that proper development in that regard was unlikely it was still fine. If I actually went in expecting a yuri series I probably would have been disappointed. But boy was that subtext strong!
I think the biggest problem I honestly had with the series is that I don’t actually know the 山椒魚 novel, so I feel like I missed a big part of the whole story. Is it just that the salamander was lonely and eventually found a frog companion? I really don’t think I gleaned more than that and don’t even know if that’s right.
For those who haven’t read it and don’t want spoilers, I give the series I solid 4/5. Enjoyable coming of age story, not that difficult (has furigana for those who want that), and provides some good dialect practice.
Finished vol 1 of the “orange manga” (it’s highlight coloring - in orange!). It’s been on my list for ages, and I saw recently that the series had concluded. Anyway, I’m always excited by colored manga, and this was a great, light and speedy read. Excited to read volume 2! I’m gonna buy physicals at some point, but I’ll probably still read it digitally before then anyway
I had a lot of trouble with that the first time around. The second time around I somewhat appreciated it (in part bc of my own additional life experiences), but like I knew it was coming.
I was definitely somewhat let down that it didn’t have a clear romantic ending, the first time I read it. Tho I developed a newfound appreciation for the ending on second read (and as you said, the subtext was quite heavy - especially in the epilogue).
This is a rare instance for me where I’m actually kind of glad it wasn’t a realized romance. I don’t think it would have been able to resolve the codependency issues as powerfully. I also really enjoy “more than friends, less than lovers” in general
Ahhh I totally forgot about that / just assumed it was fictional. I felt like it was explained enough, but who knows There’s an あらすじ here, if you wanna read it: 山椒魚 (小説) - Wikipedia
As an aside, I love the way Koyuki’s use of dialect changes, as she assimilates to life in Nagahama, and especially once she starts to realize that she in fact wants to stay there. I’m so used to thinking of assimilation in terms of loss/erosion of culture and identity, but it really feels like she gains something throughout the story.
I now have three books in active rotation, two of which I’m hoping to finish before the mystery club starts mid-November.
First up are two nonfiction picks, the ones I am aiming to finish first. I’m reading ~4% a day of 絶対に面白い化学入門 世界史は化学でできている | L34?? which is honestly pretty easy, but I entered it as a L34 just for the wide vocab I assume it’s going to have as we go through history talking about chemistry. Currently we’re talking about ‘do true vacuums exist’ (ie, atoms and empty space) and have made it up to the 17th century. It’s fun enough, but also not the sort of thing to binge read so I’m not going super fast.
Next is ソーシャルジャスティス 小児精神科医、社会を診る ( 1406) | L34?? which I just started today and read ~8% of and think that pace is reasonable. It’s harder for me than the above book, but more the sort of writing I feel I should be practicing because essays are my weak spot. I just finished the prologue where she goes over living in America during the height of the corona pandemic, being pregnant during that time, getting vaccinated, online flame wars, the relationship between online abuse and mental health…I can tell this book is going to cover a lot! Looking forward to it.
And finally my fiction book of the moment which I may not finish in time for the book club but that’s fine. It’s a much more ‘brain off’ type read to comfort me after my essays 琥珀の夏 | L28 - according to the blurb it’s about a cult that involves a school and the death of one of those children. I actually had to go read the blurb because after reading the first main section I was puzzling over why I even got the book. I suppose if it works out I’ll call it a slow burn, but right now it’s not really holding my attention terribly well.
I’m onto the last book from August’s cdjapan order now: ビブリア古書堂の事件手帖IV ~扉子たちと継がれる道~ | L30?? . This one is a “whole book basically about the same mystery” volume, which is a nice change-up after the last couple of “multiple short stories” volumes. Plus the featured books are all 夏目漱石 – it’s always a bit more fun when I know the author (though of the three stories namechecked in the chapter titles I’ve only read one).
If I finish this before my next cdjapan order arrives I think I’ll resume 理由 | L34 , which I got 90 pages into last year before getting distracted by other (shorter ) books…
Read more volumes of Naruto - finished up through 39. Doing about 2 manga a day on average. Did both of 第 1 巻 (全 2 巻): ONE PIECE FILM REDス | L26. While I am capable of reading light novels, my work environment doesn’t let be have focus long enough to make it really a comfortable prospect.
Also, I would much prefer to have furigana light novels without fanservice that I can get as a set on ebay for maybe $4-5 a book. Sadly, I don’t know of such a thing right now. Got a ton of manga to go through as is.
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Gave it 4 stars overall but it was a 5 star reading experience. Lost sleep for several days racing towards the ending.
