I can kinda see your point re: them feeling a bit under-developed towards the end of the anime.
I just finished vol 1. So far my thoughts are that it’s surprisingly normal artistically, relative to おにいさまへ. Higher reading level, but much easier to understand what’s going on. Otherwise so far it’s enjoyable, and nice to be able to take things in, more than I could during the anime. Tho I feel like I’m reading like a snail.
So far I like a lot of the embellishments/additions in the anime, and the increased focus on Oscar there. Even if the villains there were a bit one-dimensional, it still added an extra element or two to consider. But I like a lot of this too, and curious to see where things maybe diverge more in the future.
I’ve been looking out for this in bookshops here, with absolutely no success (in fact I have seen no 今野緒雪 books at all either new or secondhand, which surprised me…). So I might end up buying it online when I get home instead.
Dunno how long you’re in any particular place for, but I ordered some new books I didn’t have a chance at finding used from Amazon to get sent to Family Mart when I was there and it was great. Way cheaper than the cost overseas and no international shipping.
Of course, this required me to order from Amazon, which I’m trying to avoid. I had decided to do it late into my trip so I didn’t investigate if there were any other shops that could do that as well.
I’ve finally set up the thread! Sorry for the delay; I’ve been really busy at work. This is going to be a multimedia-based informal club, I think; no need to artificially limit potential joiners.
@cat alerted me to this earlier, and I wanted to pass the message on to anyone else interested: 宝石商リチャード氏の謎鑑定 | L34 just recently got an audiobook; it’s available through Audible.
I have returned from my trip! I had hoped to get a lot more reading done on the flight, but I ended up with a nasty headache on the flight out of town so I only read a bit on the flight back. Still working my way through 赤ずきんチャチャ 2 (りぼんマスコットコミックス 694 ) | L18 but I’m surprised how much easier it feels to read (compared to the first volume) after pushing myself through the Kirby book.
It’s been a hot minute since I posted, it seems.
I’m halfway through 水属性の魔法使い 第一部 中央諸国編5【電子書籍限定書き下ろしSS付き】 | L35??, which has been the most boring volume so far, mostly because it feels like a succession of short, barely connected stories, rather than a consistent plot like the other volumes so far.
I enjoyed volume 4 quite a bit, though, and it actually contained the scene that was shown in the color illustrations of volume 3.
I guess that’s another weird decision from the editors… After finishing volume 3 I thought “wait, can the illustrator just make stuff up??” but it turns out it was coming eventually. I always find it kinda weird that the color illustrations come first, thus acting as spoilers… but a full volume and a half ahead? That’s a bit weird.
They are basically none, considering that the first few pages from the manga adaptation show the main character kissing a woman. I’m not mad because we still get some fun banter between him and the other guy and I do like the female character involved as well, but still disappointed.
The one thing I can think of is that the author wrote a lot of extra content. The prologue of volume 4, which comes before that scene, is both original content AND something like 30% of the book. I think that the illustrator was basically done/deadline was coming soon but they had to cut the chapters differently due to the extra stuff?
Maybe the author even mentioned it in the あとがき, but I did skip those past volume two.
For general review/thoughts I put in a review/mentioned on bingo, but I wanted to say hi here too, so instead I’ll just pick a couple of random phrases I picked up in it.
土壇場 - Last moment/11th Hour, but gory-ish origin from essentially old school execution methods
雪隠で饅頭 - Steamed bun in the toilet keeping good stuff for yourself
I (finally) finished reading 光のとこにいてね | L31! It was very long and I actually quit reading it around the halfway point. However, after a few days passed I found myself thinking about it and wondering what would happen to the characters, so I picked it up again and finished it. The story was interesting enough, I just found certain (ok many) parts unrealistic from a storytelling pov. I think that is because I typically like to read books that do the characterization differently than this specific subgenre of エンタメ小説 tends to do, so it’s not bad - it just wasnt for me.
I would describe the genre as “emotional 本屋大賞 nominee book” and indeed it actually reminded me very much of 汝、星のごとく | L32, which is like, ザ・emotional 本屋大賞 winner. It also happens to be another book I quit reading halfway through. I am nothing if not consistent with my tastes! (Sorry if you like that book, let’s still be friends).
I think if you like books like 汝、星のごとく | L32 or 52ヘルツのクジラたち | L32 you would probably like this a lot, though. Alternatively, if you enjoy yuri stories and want to read something more serious than your typical yuri LN type book, you may like this.
I have now started reading 地雷グリコ | L31, which is a book about playing all kinds of crazy games. It is basically the book form of those anime that are game centered like Kakegurui, Death Parade, Kaiji (do people even watch Kaiji anymore or am I old?) etc. where one character is like “I used the power of logic and reasoning to trick you” and then the other character is like “Hah, but that’s where you’re wrong! I used your own reasoning against you!” and it goes on and on. It’s pretty easy to ready so far - if you like that type of content maybe you’d like 地雷グリコ！ Added bonus that you will also learn some Japanese children’s games.
Finished up チャチャ volume 2 and knocked off a star for having a rather lengthy segment that has not aged well. I guess thats the hazard of reading manga from the 90s.
Onward to the next volume of ニッターズハイ!2 | L20! They’re introducing a character who does crochet/amigurumi so now I will learn crochet terms. Highly recommend this series for learning Japanese crafting terms.
Finished わたしの幸せな結婚 | L31! I was listening to the audiobook with this one, and it went super smoothly; surprisingly smoothly, even. I wouldn’t have pegged this at L31; maybe my stockpile of vocab was just a better fit than usual or something, but this felt like an easier read than I anticipated.
Anyway, I quite enjoyed it. I came for Cinderella in a fantasy world and that’s what I got, no complaints. I would like to read more in the series at some point, but I’m in no rush to do so now; the first book wrapped things up surprisingly well, to the point where I’m guessing the author didn’t really anticipate a sequel being asked for. There’s one or two minor threads they could follow up on, but it works quite well as a standalone.
Not sure what my next audiobook will be; I’ll be traveling soon and I’m not sure how much time/brain power I’ll have for it. Plus I don’t have much tolerance for longer audiobooks anyway; this one was about six and a half hours, and I was ready to be wrapped up by like hour four or five.
Based on what comes up later, I think it’s a case of the author hoping to make it a series, but making the first volume standalone just in case it doesn’t sell.
Finished 後宮の烏 4 | L36 - no big surprises. It is slowly drifting away from ghost mysteries to more focus on politics and the background divine conflict, but that’s fine. I would like some more ghosts though.
Picking up 蒼衣の末姫 | L30??. This will be attempt two as I bounced off it the first time - but I chose it specifically because it seems dense and might take a long time to get through, as I’m far away from my piles of unread books for a while.
You almost got me interested but then I saw who the author was, and the one book of his I’ve read I didn’t like, so chances aren’t good for this one either
Just to double check, this is wrt 光のとこにいてね | L30 ? It seems to be already on my list, but doesn’t have any tags. But that definitely grabs my attention
I think this will be my next read with audiobook
Idk anything about said author, but their novels have some great covers (a rarity for JP novels), and apparently they have a yuri anthology that’s already on my wishlist, for obvious reasons
Finished マリア様がみてる 34 リトルホラーズ | L30 - mix of horror, supernatural, or mystery stories. It was enjoyable enough, and I liked the frame story. Will take my time getting to the remaining 3 side story books
Mostly done with 美少女戦士セーラームーン 6 | L24 - main story was great. I skipped the Chibiusa diaries, and just have to read the かぐや姫 portion now, which should be fun! I like the outer senshi more in the manga tbh.
My only complaint is that I think the anime is done much better, and I find it much more convincing in a variety of areas - Oscar’s evolution of beliefs, how Rosalie is handled, Jeanne’s death scene, the politics in general, Oscar’s new unit outside the imperial guard… Well that is arguably more realistic(?) in the manga, but it’s much better writing in the anime imo. I wonder how many of the things that were altered were with/without Ikeda-sensei’s involvement. Obviously the anime could fine tune a finished product, whereas the manga was written in a serialized form, and somewhat dependent on fan’s response for direction (ex Rosalie being written out of the story eventually, bc apparently she was massively unpopular (I love her though)). Speaking of Rosalie, while I think she’s overall handled better in the anime, I like that the manga is much more repeatedly explicit about her love for Oscar being romantic (and thus obviously out of bounds of the S relationship she has with Oscar).
Leaving that aside, I can see more stylistic similarities to おにいさまへ now that I’m further in. It’s also interesting how Andre is gradually drawn differently, based on where he is in his romantic progression with Oscar - which is still very early on. This was noticeable in the anime as well.
Anyway this is still one of my favorite manga I’ve ever read
I’m assuming this is true for the last few volumes specifically? Cuz so far I’d say the exact opposite. The anime does have some extra plot additions with the villainous characters, but there is much more development/evolution between plot points, imo. And it portrays the situation outside the palace much more as well.
Edit: tho I have to say that dance party is much more delightful in the manga
Maybe some editorial lines got crossed or something?
I am nothing if not consistent with my tastes! (Sorry if you like that book, let’s still be friends).
I guess thats the hazard of reading manga from the 90s.
I appreciate that you are interested whether or not I liked or disliked a book 
