Thanks for the great explanation! It makes a lot of sense for class S to be mostly written by female authors. I’m guessing that 谷崎 saw the rise of the Class S genre and decided to put his spin on it. I’m not so sure it works well today (and perhaps never did), but as always his imagery is very vivid and the osaka dialect is fun so I’ll probably read through to the end.
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I was surprised to notice that this book is published by 主婦の友社. I think of 主婦の友 as one of those prewar magazines (perhaps misled by the old fashioned feel that the title has when translated into English). The magazine was indeed founded back in 1917, but apparently it only stopped publishing in 2008. Presumably the publishing company still exists and hasn’t felt the need to rebrand itself.
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Ohh interesting. Here’s their website: https://shufunotomo.co.jp/
Surprisingly they publish 声優グランプリ… Which I should probably try reading
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Bit of an odd mix of magazines, overall. The monthly 1400 yen magazine on how to pick winning lottery numbers feels a bit exploitative to me…
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I’ve started looking at some easier mangas to bridge the time and relax a little between the end of a L30 book club I participated in and my L29 book club, and I picked ちょっとだけ変な世界でアルバイト | L20?? as my first candidate.
The title fits perfectly. We follow the protagonist through 10 page manga short stories which always play at a different work place where she’s helping out for the day, and because the world is indeed “just a little bit weird” she’s dealing with interesting customers - e.g. robot customers at a coffee shop, or a ghost child at a photograpy studio. Sometimes there’s a bit of a surprising twist, and sometimes the story just feels surprisingly (considering the non-human characters) mundane and relateable.
But more than anything, the stories feel warm.
I really like it so far!
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I have seen this movie. It was really good, but also really intense. I don’t think it says this on the wikipedia page, but it was loosely based on a novel by Sarah Waters called Fingersmith. The book is less intense. I kind of want to reread it now.
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Hopefully I can chill out with starting new things… but in the meantime…
Started
After seeing a clip from the seemingly excellent drama adaptation, I finally picked this back up - and am enjoying it! Really interested to see just how deep it goes. It’s nice to read a cheating storyline with adult characters, that seems to be on the deeper side, rather than focusing on melodrama (as much as I love 今日はカノジョがいないから 1 | L21 …). It feels much easier now than when I tried to read it a year ago, though I still find the abrupt scene changes a little tricky. Also the author’s other work 淡島百景 1 | L24?? is back on my interest list, cuz I saw a preview for the anime adaptation
Finally started - I’m still at the beginning, but so far I really love the style and vibe, and these two seem like they’ll be a cute couple (I assume). Seems like it will be a fun, quick read. Edit: finished the series. A bit shallow, but loved it. There are some definite “you can tell this was written by a woman” moments (not a bad thing, but some of them were funny)
A bunch of yuri oneshots taking place in different historical eras (probly the oldest being Meiji)
Still at the beginning, but it’s fun so far
4-koma
Is really boring me so far. The first chapter or two were nice, but it’s just gotten very “aimless, mildly dumb comedy”, which was also my issue with 紡ぐ乙女と大正の月 1 | L29 (though that took a while longer, and seems like it could regain a plot). Still I’ll try to finish it.
I’m wondering how typical this is of Manga Time KR’s general 4-koma vibe, or if I just had bad luck with these particular series. Otoh, I really like both NEW GAME! | L25 and ぼっち・ざ・ろっく! | L30 - b/c they have meaningful plot, depth, and character development.
So I’m curious to see if I feel the same with 先パイがお呼びです! 1 | L24?? or 好都合セミフレンド 1巻 | L23 (which seems a bit darker?). It does make me vaguely curious to pick up 桜Trick 4 | L22 and see if it has anything in common. I was kinda meh about vol 3, and it was more effort than enjoyment back then. Side note: I’ve been surprised to discover Manga Time KR has way more yuri than I thought. Until recently I assumed it was almost all cgdct that involved friendly flirting or subtext, but never crossed the line
Messed up yuri
Otherwise, continuing with messed up yuri...
Finished:
- すれ違い巨大感情百合アンソロジー | L24 - anthology around unrequited (or otherwise messed up) love. CW: most of the stories involve some sort of SA or dubious consent. Points to the authors there’s almost no “you SA’d me but really I liked it”
- 彼女の世界 | L24 - starts with girl discovering her classmate is secretly writing fantasy erotica, and blackmailing her over it. The erotica (and how it’s interwoven with the main plot) is fairly interesting, and it contained some surprisingly uncommon vocab. CW: there’s both literal and literary depictions of SA… this one does somewhat include the “SA but I liked it” trope, but it actually puts some development before and after, to make that believable
May read soon: アタシのセンパイ:ス | L24?? - Girl wants to save her senpai from someone who’s bullying her, and things get really messy. CW: again w/ the SA, but this time also involving abuse and bullying/blackmail iirc
Also started 男をやめてみた~癌になったので女装して恋をすることにしました~1 | L29 (not yuri) - and I’m not far in, but it’s definitely interesting so far
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Weirdly enough this just popped up on my feed… The plot summaries do seem quite similar:
I added the JP translation to here: 荊の城 上 | L30??
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4-koma are primarily comedies, so many only use their setup to serve that purpose. Most I’ve read are fairly aimless. I think the longer ones tend to be more concerned with plot, but not always.
ご注文はうさぎですか? | L24 has a slow burn, character-driven plot, but there’s no story to move forward per se. It’s very much focused on the characters.
こみっくがーるず | L24 has development similar to Bocchi the Rock, just for drawing comics instead of playing in a band.
うらら迷路帖 | L32 has a plot around becoming 占い師 and the main character looking for her mom, but it also wanders aimlessly for a while until it rushes the ending.
I’d still say none of those are as plot focused as Bocchi or New Game though.
星屑テレパス | L24, which I think I mentioned before, probably comes closest since it’s often focused on building rockets and a plot line surrounding one of the main characters. And 紡ぐ乙女と大正の月 | L29 definitely picks back up later on. I don’t see anything else worth mentioning for strong-ish plot or characters from what I’ve read.
Oh I’d still say it’s mostly subtext. I can only think of a few that have a kiss or actual relationship rather than just teasing the reader. But I also think you already know of all the ones I know about, except maybe すわっぷ⇔すわっぷ | L22 which has some girls kissing for a silly plot device. It’s not exactly a deep manga though.
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Been working on 世にも奇妙な商品カタログ 5 . I recently bought a Pixel tablet, which is the first tablet I’ve had in about 15 years. I’ve learned something interesting about myself. I read far more in sessions on this tablet, than I do on my PC at work. Like A LOT more. It’s been 11 days and I’ve already read 60% of the book. That’s without even reading every day. The past two books in the series have ended up taking me a month a piece.
I also started 100年後も読まれる名作 ふしぎの国のアリス at the same time, which is an easy book, but I already made it 30% in within two sittings.
It sounds silly, but I never realized how much me being comfortable affects my reading. 
I suppose I also play video games more when I can lay in bed with the Switch or Steamdeck too. (or weirdly enough if I’m on the treadmill)
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I think it’s the aimlessness that’s doing me in tbh… But anyway that’s fair m I’ll adjust my expectations accordingly
Update: I tried and was underwhelmed by 先パイがお呼びです! 1 | L24?? . It’s not overly bad, it just feels very 中途半端 in comparison to other ones I’ve read.
I’ve never quite been interested enough, but I do like character-driven… Also I noticed a review mention that the manga has covered a span of 4-5 years in-universe? That’s kinda cool
That has been on my list, so I guess I’ll consider it. I don’t really like that level of moe art style though - which is not a problem I remember having with the couple of anime eps I watched
Already on my list apparently. It seems you may have been iffy on vol 1 though? (3 stars for enjoyment, 2 for language). What’s with the language?
Good to know. I remember the mention of rockets
How much later on are we talking? Like I’m mid-vol 1… Is it within the volume, or like 2 volumes later?
Still there’s a decent amount
4-koma:
- 紡ぐ乙女と大正の月 | L29
- 瑠東さんには敵いません! | L24??
- 桜Trick | L22
- 好都合セミフレンド 1巻 | L23
- 先パイがお呼びです! 1 | L24??
- 星屑テレパス | L24 (at least it has that tag on multiple websites)
Standard yuri:
- アネモネは熱を帯びる | L22
- いつか私は、君を裏切る 1巻 | L24??
- 色んな女の子とキスをしていたら、百合キスに目覚めてしまいました...。 1 | L24??
- しゅがー・みーつ・がーる! 1巻 | L24??
- 前略、百合の園より 1巻 | L24??
- 百合ラブスレイブ わたしだけの委員長 (erotica, I didn’t feel like adding)
And I’m probably missing some
I thought 花唄メモワール 1巻 | L24?? would be yuri, but it doesn’t seem to have that tag anywhere I checked. It looks cool though
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Huh! I read fingersmith years and years ago. I only really remember the ending tbh. Didn’t realize they’d made a TV series let alone a jp translation. Was it that popular?
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not relevant to jp about fingersmith/the handmaiden
This is just my opinion, but I’d argue the book is more intense. I found the movie really toned down the female characters…motivations let’s say.
The bbc adaptation is pretty similar to the book though from what I remember. The move is very different after the half way point. It basically only adapts the first third of the book or so and then does it’s own thing.
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I’ve seen that review and it’s off by a bit, but time does pass noticeably. Each volume of the manga is roughly one season, so something like 2.5 years have passed from when the manga started. There was an entire arc covering the middle school characters approaching graduation and having to pick what high school to enroll in.
Oh, I wouldn’t trust my language reviews. That depends too much on my mood and what I’m looking for. It uses some archaic language for the divination, so I probably took off points for that not being a super useful thing to learn. But that aspect provides its own intrigue if it interests you.
I don’t remember. I read the first two volumes back to back, so they blur together a bit. There’s definitely some development at the end of volume one. And a lot at the end of volume 3 + all of volume 4. I don’t remember much in between those points though.
People tend to add that tag for the slightest flirtation, so I usually take those with a grain of salt. In my opinion it’s stronger subtext, but still just subtext. So far at least.
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That’s cool. I’m flipping through it, but it’s still not really grabbing me. But still, cool to know
Sounds fine then. Tbh I almost never use the language rating field, cuz like everything’s useful at some point. So I only tend to use it if like something is particularly incoherent, or “story’s meh, but language had something useful or interesting” - like with 百合の間に挟まれたわたしが、勢いで二股してしまった話 | L27
Hmm, I’ll probably try to push through vol 1 eventually then
I’ve heard this criticism, but yet to see an example that matches it. (Tho I do take most things with a grain of salt). Anyway that probably counts in my book, so maybe I’ll get to it soon. Or randomly start another 7 manga instead
Reminds me I do need to get back to 声優ラジオのウラオモテ | L28 eventually, to find out if it ever gets out of I’m clearly really attracted to her, and just don’t know the name for these feelings yet land or not
Also, the Complete Blend edition is the original magazine size and color pages, so like 25% is in color!
Yeah, I’ve stopped filling it in for that reason.
Personally, I prefer to add that tag when there is some relationship, admission of romantic feelings, or something approaching either of those. I will still use the tag at a lower percentage for less. AniList has it at 80%, which I think is pushing it a bit. I think 40-60% would more accurately reflect what the manga has been like so far. None of this is a criticism of the series though, as I’m still enjoying it without a focus on romance. And maybe what is in there is enough for you to enjoy anyway.
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A couple more books I’ve finished recently since I last posted!
アッコちゃんの時代 | L34 -
Great insight into 80s Japan celebrity scene.
It is basically a biopic of an it-girl over that time (albeit maybe loosely based in some cases).
This means lots of famous faces and famous news stories popping in and out. Quite interesting as 9/10 of these were new to me, so lots of wikipedia rabbit holes came along with reading it.
And I’ve just finished あたしはビー玉 | L30?? -
Essentially a slightly absurd high school novel, mainly made absurd by the fact the main character is a marble.
But it was really good, and gave me similar vibes to 木になった亜沙 | L26 . There’s lots of tropes that you’d expect, summer hanabi, a high school festival, crushes, etc. - but there’s also lots of odd moments which sort of catch you off guard (in a good way)
And one more update, have passed 10,000 pages read now! 
Next stop 20, 000 
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Awesome! I’ve been meaning to make a spreadsheet so I can track novel pages read more easily and aim for 10,000.
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I couldn’t wait the 2 months needed until the publication of the next volume of 男をやめてみた~癌になったので女装して恋をすることにしました~ | L29 and ended up reading ahead with the ongoing published chapters.
Turns out there’s a much more direct reason. As a way to counter her declining sales revenue, she gets convinced to publish some 同人誌 by colleagues and to write about her transition/life by one guy she is kinda dating. Turns out she did both at the same time, under her actual name (or at least the name she usually publish under). People in the comments are all like “ooooh, you are [name]!” (among comments on other stuff that happens in the chapter). Apparently the doujin features heavily 
scenes with a character that looks suspiciously like the one she is on the date with here.
Which kinda makes me wonder a loooot of things that I feel bad wondering about when it comes to complete strangers, but the dude said “I like your manga, if you publish some doujin stuff, I’ll read it”. I… wonder how he took it? In this version of the story, they are “just friends” at this point. (Maybe it will even come up later, who knows)
Generally speaking, I assume a lot of things were changed compared to real life, at least for anonymization, but still, I guess people will recognize what corresponds to them. I wonder how they took it/if the author asked for permission/if she skipped stuff because she didn’t get permission…
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I’ve been reading a handful of books slowly. Life has been very busy for me lately so I haven’t had a ton of time to finish anything, but I will say I’m enjoying(?) what I’m reading.
Let me expand that (?) 
教団X | L30?? is nuts. If this were an action movie, or a gory anime - albeit with orgies and rape - it would go over very well with many people. As it stands I’m swinging between 'wow this plot is fun! 
’ and ‘omg I have to read another 5 pages of faux-philosophical rambling’. The sex scenes are all very porn-y but the book keeps trying to give literary vibes and it’s just a mess. But there’s cults! And messy relationships! And murder! So yeah I’m continuing on. It helps that the audiobook is excellent.
Massive spoilers up to where I am in the book. Only read if you don’t intend to read it or don’t care about being spoiled:
So like so far there are two cults, except one isn’t really a cult cause people can leave whenever, but the leader of the sex cult has beef with the leader of that not-a-cult who has since died at this point in the book. The sex cult has a second-in-command type leader who for a long time was in a sexual relationship with his sister by marriage, which makes the girl from the not-a-cult he’s sleeping with very jealous. She records him talking on his phone one time after they hooked up, thinking she’d get the deets on his sister, but instead she records him talking about a plot to blow things up. So she, through a series of events, ends up in the sex cult with another guy, who was also involved with second-in-command’s sister for a bit. He was sent by the sex cult to infiltrate the other ‘cult’.
Ugh this is hard to explain.
Anyways, so second-in-command used to work for an NGO in Africa (I don’t remember if they ever said a country? Just ‘アフリカ’ a lot) and he was kidnapped by yet another cult but they’re a terrorism cult. Also there’s this whole thing about starvation cause second-in-command was starved as a child but this spoiler is getting long as is.
ANYWAYS.
So second-in-command ran away from the terrorism cult, which they did not like, and ended up in the sex cult, and then he recruited people away from the sex cult to do some terrorism with him, but his comrade just shot him and now he’s in the hospital and 2 dudes who are cops (but I suspect not actually? But even if they are, they’re tied to the terrorism cult?) are like ‘blow up the bombs or we’ll have your sister raped and killed’ and just…WHAT AM I READING. 
It’s such a weird convoluted plot and I hope I’m even remembering all the details right cause I’ve taken ages to read this thing (started in February)
Anyways, this post went longer than expected so maybe I’ll post about the other book I’m reading another time!
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