Yup!
Yes! No spoilers or anything, but the anime kind of condensed a few volumes together in the last ~10 episodes or so and I found the manga to be a lot more satisfying.
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This is the one I’ve read:
体育館の殺人 | L31
You can read why I didn’t like it in my review. I’ll add here that I also don’t love high school settings, and it certainly felt light-novelly or YA to me, which is a genre that doesn’t appeal to me at all. So while I did dislike it, your mileage may well vary. It has certainly received good reviews, both here and on native sites.
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Having read most of it now, I have the strong impression that the author expects you’ve probably already read
Friends seems to be one of those “this is what was happening to a side character during the events of another book” stories – there are scenes that probably we saw from another character’s perspective and references to what I assume is the main plot of 雨のティアラ (and I wonder how spoilery of that book Friends is going to be). Though Friends does in my opinion work on its own as a story, so I haven’t felt “oh, I should stop reading until I read that other book”.
Edit: just read another five pages (near the end of Friends) and found what I’m pretty sure is a spoiler for one of the main “what’s going on?” plot points of 雨のティアラ…
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That’s very good to know… it was clearly alluding to history between the characters, so that makes sense it’s referring to a previous book. I’m probably not too fussed about the spoiler(s) for 雨のティアラ, but maybe I’ll check it out first, thx
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I went through the prologue and the first 25 min of Ch 1. I think L31 is pretty solid for that portion. There’s some uncommon vocab sprinkled in here and there that I can’t just Intuit, and it’s very concise, with little description - so if you miss something, it’s harder to stay on track. Definitely harder for me than the portion of 本好きの下剋上 1 I read recently. I’m not too crazy about the audiobook narrator. He’s not bad, but I don’t think he does character voices so well.
I might read it after SAO 4, but I might just stick to the anime on this one, cuz I’m not sure it’s grabbing me enough, despite the small vocab count
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What’s some of the vocab tripping you up, out of curiosity?
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So with the disclaimer that I was a lot more tired earlier, and this is me scanning the text now (rather than listening in realtime), here’s words that iirc I wasn’t getting in realtime. Also some of the names just took me a bit to retain, which would be solved with more story familiarity. A lot of these would actually be less of an issue without the audio (or with pausing for lookups), ironically
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Ah, I’m the same way; my brain just needs that extra processing time and all is fine.
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One of those is a name, so I wouldn’t try to intuit a meaning 
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I just listened to another 10 min of it, and was fine (with some lag time, but not enough to interfere with comprehension). So I think a lot of it was me being tired. I do still think the lvl is accurate though. At the very least, harder than 本好きの下剋上 1 (which I sped up) for me.
Ehehe … The names seem to be taking me the longest to process visually, since they’re either less familiar kanji, less familiar readings, or both.
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The first chapter is usually the hardest chapter of any book (except maybe for later books in a series), so it’s also not surprising that it was easier after that.
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異世界美少女受肉おじさんと(15) (×裏少年サンデース) | L26 came out today, so I bought it and read it over my lunch break.
The part I wanted to see was over really quickly (and was unsatisfying), sadly, and we went instead to a different plot line.
It’s not bad, but I’m still frustrated.
There is no announcement about the next volume, but I think it will come out in August? Bah.
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1/3rd through ベルサイユのばら(8) | L32 . Still great, but I still like the anime better in various ways, tho I wonder how much of it is just that I saw it first?
Giving a go with the audiobook bc I’m not reading enough novels I’m looking to do more non-anime listening, and have just been curious to see how it feels half a year later. Since I’m doing it with audiobook, I had to backtrack to the beginning of File 2. So I’ll be familiar with it for a while. I do wish I’d stop starting new novels rn tho
It’s pretty good so far. I’m curious to see how the author will keep it interesting over the next 7 volumes. If I wasn’t still in the middle of ベルサイユのばら, I’d probably binge read it. Nice to read something easier, once in a while - tho I can’t always make out the handwriting (but those parts don’t seem to matter much anyway). Contrary to the English subtitle, her crush is on her brother’s wife
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I feel so accomplished! I finished 本好きの下剋上 33!! It was lovely but now I’m sad that it’s over.
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Congrats! Onto the next series! I’m probably going to go with サイレント・ウィッチ | L31. I’ve been enjoying the first volume and plan to continue with the series. It’s similar difficulty to 本好き, though of course it’s hard to compare the first volume of a series to an entire epic fantasy series. It’s still a fantasy, but not isekai and has multiple viewpoints, so a nice change of pace from always being in マイン’s head.
Did you have anything planned for your next series to try?
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Thanks! I tried reading Silent Witch but I couldn’t really get into it. I read volume 1 of おこぼれ姫と円卓の騎士 last week and I really liked it, though!
It’s King Arthur-inspired fantasy and the world building has been solid so far. The main character has to gather an order of knights in order to affirm her position as the heir to the throne, which means lots of イケメン 
The character dynamics have been entertaining so far. It’s 17 volumes, completed, and all available at my local library, so I’ll probably continue it soon.
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Repeats to self: I will not start another novel… I will not start another novel… Maybe if I finish one of the current ones first though…
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Oh hey, me too! And at almost the same time, judging by the activity log 
It really was a great series, and this last volume was such a nice ending too.
Reading the あとがき felt really nostalgic somehow, the way they all follow the same outline made them have a strong impression for me.
Checking my old spreadsheet, I started the first book in October of 2020, over over 4.5 years ago… (and that was just the successful attempt, I bought the ebook almost a year before and struggled through the opening pages a few times before giving up!)
Indeed! Though I don’t have one specific series lined up yet. The teaser for 本好きの下剋上 ハンネローレの貴族院五年生 | L30 did make it sound like fun (and I bought it a few weeks ago already…) but I’m going to wait a bit before diving back into Honzuki. I might focus on manga for a bit, as there are some series I really want to get into like 異世界美少女受肉おじさんと | L26, あかね噺 | L29, やがて君になる | L22, オレが私になるまで | L21, 黄泉のツガイ | L25, ok that’s a lot actually. Then I also want to continue サイレント・ウィッチ | L31 and maybe try 「涼宮ハルヒ」シリーズ | L34 as well, and someday continue 狼と香辛料 | L36. But just for good measure I think I’ll try to read at least one non-LN for a change of pace before picking one of these series.
me 5 seconds later: ordering a new obscure rakugo manga from Mercari
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The art style for あかね looks so cool. オレが私になるまで is a fav - hope you enjoy!!
名前？
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Using all of my self-control, I actually managed to avoid purchasing a cheap set of どうらく息子. It’s supposed to be a pretty straight (as in serious, consistent) drama with interesting depictions of full Rakugo performances throughout, and I want to read it sometime, but I decided I should try it first before committing to owning 18 volumes And I have plenty of other series waiting already.
Since you’re asking though, my previous obscure rakugo manga purchase which arrived today was 落語天女おゆい（月島唯・現代篇）, the first and only volume of a spinoff from the anime with the same name. In just the first 10 pages we already have the legendary 桂歌丸師匠 himself leading magical girls to fight youkai in 2006 Tokyo so I am extremely satisfied with my purchase.
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