Anyone have thoughts on 響け! ユーフォニアム | L30 ? I just finished watching リズと青い鳥 | L22 and it got me maybe interested to give the books a try (if I understand correctly, it’s from part of book 2?)
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Sounds like it’s time for a “Fantasy that is technically isekai I guess, but hear me out…” list 
Another nomination for that list: pirate adventurer cat LN.
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Both of those sound so good! Someday … 
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My thoughts are that without the music and amazing animation, I don’t really see the appeal of the series.
(Also, Kumirei isn’t a thing in the book as far as I understand)
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Edit: now that I’m home, I’m remembering there’s novels I’m way more interested in anyway, so I probably won’t pick it up. I will rewatch Liz at some point tho (cuz it was great in English, and I’m sure it’s better in JP)
Wouldn’t the appeal be inner monologue and narrative descriptions, like most LNs? If the novels weren’t the source material I’d definitely agree about not seeing the appeal without the music.
Idk, my impression of 響け rn is that the first few eps of S1 were fairly boring, but リズと青い鳥 was absolutely captivating - both on a story level, and musically. I am a little considering retrying the anime, except that I won’t be done with セーラームーン anytime soon, where as I could try the novel sooner.
If there’s one thing I know about the series… 
(I just remember like months of angry reddit threads about the anime ending, and everyone being (understandably) upset, if they didn’t know the source material )
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My thoughts are i managed to get through the first few chapters at a sub n4 level almost a decade ago only to be defeated by asuka going absolutely apeshit over classical music history
/Edit fuck, it was a decade ago. Jesus Christ
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I’ve been working my way through 雪の森. It’s set in Hokkaido. Grammar wise it’s about N3 level (from what I can tell) but there is a lot of additional vocab for me so it’s been a slog in parts.
From what I can tell the story is about a sacred artefact being stolen from the family who are guarding it and the chase to get it back. I’m a little confused at points because of the number of unknown words for me and lack of furigana but it seems a decent enough short story.
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Tbh considering I know music theory very well, this would probably be a good way for me to improve my vocab, and also, if she’s going in deep, that’s kinda cool… The stuff in the beginning of the anime is like the most basic of basics
Anyway my sympathies. What did you think of the first few chapters otherwise?
Ooh that looks interesting. Another one joins the list
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明日もまた勇者のとなり 1 | L25 was a pretty decent read. Lookups were enough that it was interesting, but not too much that it was tiring, which was nice for a (half) fantasy. The present day parts feel a bit too simple rn, but I get the impression book 2 will be more interesting in that regard
お釈迦様もみてる2 学院のおもちゃ【マリア様がみてるカラー口絵つき】 | L29 is boring me. May partially be that I was fatigued, but Hanadera just seems really idiotic, and there’s no romance unlike マリみて, and I don’t like the current subplot. I’m sure it will get more interesting in later volumes
花物語 上 | L39 the more I read, the more I fall in love with it. One story at a time, with jpdb reviews (making decks from PDF)
Next:
- 宵子の肖像 1 | L24?? - 2023 but with retro old shoujo aesthetic (tho it’s seinen)
- 小さき花々 花物語 | L39 after I finishing お釈迦様 2. Curious to see if it’s much easier than 花物語
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mmm, it was so long ago and my japanese was so rudimentary by comparison i think i was just happy i could read the first four pages by simple virtue of banging my head against it so many times. bear in mind this took me literal months. it wasn’t a great use of time, but this was pre-natively… anyway, i think i enjoyed it, but I was probably at least half just running off my memories of the anime adaptation
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It’s strange; you’d think the romance would be a shoe-in given it’s set at another one-gender school. 
…Or maybe not. Reading more 穏やか貴族 has led to the announcement that リゼル was (somehow) the prime minister of his country. I can only imagine the chaos his disappearance has led to, lmao. On the other hand, the young king there sounds like quite the firebrand, so I’m sure plenty of goofy things have gotten kicked into gear over there.
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Right?! There is one major character who did briefly kiss another guy on the lips in book 1, but that’s all so far. I’m sure we’ll get something more as the books go on (knowing this character’s background), but yeah I’ve been surprised by it’s relative absence.
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I started the next volume of 魔法少女育成計画 as I said I might. Finished the prologue and about half of the first chapter. It’s still tough as hell. I think spending a year and a half only reading 本好き has not helped my comprehension (besides the whole not studying thing). I have to look up so many words and have to reread sentences way more often than I would like. That said, I’m hoping it was just particularly hard because there was a lot of monologuing and I’m reorienting myself since it’s the third book in an arc and I read the previous volume a year and a half ago.
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Currently on a trip and jet lag is kicking my butt. My brain is not braining enough to read text, so I randomly opened a manga I recently bought (barely looking at the cover). It started like it was going to be some BL (and, sure, it was in my recently bought, in terms of probabilities the maths check out) when suddenly a naked goddess of some sort turns the uke character into a girl.
My thoughts exactly. Goddess, what are you doing to my BL.
On the one hand, it made me remember what the manga was about (it’s one I got from the recent discussion on TSF), on the other hand, I thought it would be the guy on the cover changing into a girl. I mean, I guess I could have anticipated the current situation from the title (異世界美少女受肉おじさんと 1 | L26) and the prologue, but again, not playing with a full deck right now.
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Well, technically it’s still a BL, one guy just has a female body from that time on. He won’t give up thinking to be guy; at least not during the first season that I watched some time ago.
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I have literally read BL (as in, sold as BL) like that. (The difference being that the guy sometimes got his male body back in the BL case). I would take it as BL if there was more exploration of how the character feels about his new body (that is, I am perfectly fine with BL involving a trans guy), but there isn’t any at this point, past the first chapter.
I’m fine with it, by the way. I just don’t think it’s BL (as in the book category, and it’s obviously not sold as such either)
Edit: volume 1 was mostly fun. Didn’t like the elves, but they match the personality of the goddess, so it is internally consistent.
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3-4 chapters in, and while it should theoretically match where I am in the anime (Infinity arc / Witches 5), things are ordered sooo differently, to the point that they’re incomparable - which is great, cuz I can just enjoy both for what they are 
Please tell me I'm going to see this animated
Even in the 90s anime, Haruka seems like she’s about to make a move on Usagi half the time
Also, Usagi sleeps over at Mamo-chan’s repeatedly?! Doesn’t he live by himself too? Her parents must really trust him
I like Chibiusa better in manga Infinity arc than what I’ve seen in the 90s anime. Will be curious to see how I feel about her, when I go back and read vol 4. Haruka & Michiru are sooooo much more intense and over the top in the manga. Also I like that Usagi-tachi are so much less dense in the manga… the anime reaaally stretches that at times
It would be easy to just say “I like the manga more” - but I like them both for entirely different reasons. One thing that’s interesting about the manga is that even the handwriting gets furigana, which… is not as helpful as it sounds, cuz the kana are just as hard (if not worse) to read sometimes 
It did get me to watch 2 eps of Crystal, which did make some stuff in the manga clearer. I will probably watch more of it just so I can see the borderline 浮き parts animated
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Yesterday, I went on booklive, which reminded me that 尾守つみきと奇日常。(5) | L22 came out recently, so instead of reading something I already have, I bought that and read it instead.
As expected, I wasn’t super fan of the succubus character introduced this time, but she wasn’t as fan-service-y as I feared. I found it pretty fitting that she falls in love (?) with the main character because her horoscope told her to
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I randomly started reading 七日目は夏への扉 | L28?? and saw on the first pages that the characters introduced had the same names as the characters in ふしぎ古書店1 福の神はじめました | L23 – both books are by the same author, but I thought the names are only the same as a nod to the readers who read both. Well, no, apparently those books play in the same universe. And while the main character of ふしぎ古書店 is a middle schooler (who lives with her aunt), 七日目は夏への扉 focuses on her aforementioned aunt. I found that a very fun development since I very much enjoyed ふしぎ古書店 and 七日目は夏への扉 seems to be a more mature story in the same setting with the same main characters. But I’ve only read a bit so not sure how it’ll develop!
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Not too much to comment on for 穏やか貴族の休暇のすすめ。 | L32; two things come to mind as of chapter 6:
- リゼル’s body count is up to three now, adding in the guild receptionist. I liked the picture they gave of him, リゼル、and ギル. Makes me realize that the physical character descriptions have been pretty sparse so far.
- リゼル has the magical ability to…teleport/move magic? What a strange way to “justify” his ability to reload his magic gun.
It’s hitting all the standard isekai notes so far, though it’s not a huge complaint. I’m definitely enjoying the characters, at the very least.
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