I just started the new year by reading a bunch of mangas: https://learnnatively.com/book/1951121a5a/ (and volume 2, finally found those at Bookoff), 魔入りました!入間くん(11) | L27 (and 12; I haven’t read volumes 4-10, but I saw the anime; actually those two are also covered by the anime so nothing new) and 尾守つみきと奇日常。 | L22 volume 8 (just requested the sync)
Edit: the sync is not working
I thought I made a mistake the first time, but now. When I request it, the status changes to “queued” but then, after some time, it goes back to “synced” (but the new volume isn’t showing up)
I read 僕の心のヤバイやつ 1 | L21 since I learned that it was free to read for a couple of days (thanks @Kroki)
I’ve seen a lot of complaints about the beginning on the forum, but the main character feels like a typical junior high school student? Having your prefrontal cortex develop will give you weird thoughts and mess up with your behavioral patterns, and that’s natural. I guess it might feel strange since the genre more typically features a main character who is a wet blanket instead. I like him too! He does feel like an actual kid his age (and so does his love interest). As long as the author doesn’t put any fan service, that could be a pretty cute story.
I don’t mind the first few chapters, but I do mention it to people because if you’re selling a story as a really sweet coming of age love story and it starts with “I want to murder my classmates”, there’s some explaining to do.
I totally agree that he’s a pretty reasonable character for his age, and his character arc gets going within that first book. It’s just that the first few chapters aren’t representative of the tone of the rest of the series.
That might be the case, but the way he wants to stab her with his knife and have her dead body to himself really reminds those serial killers that can get off only through the act of killing…
That together with the title gives an impression that this is how the story will continue - he’ll be having these murder fantasies, keep stalking her trying to kill her and what’s not with that “part of him” that he “can’t control”. And well, that’s not the case at all so the gap between what it seems to be and what it actually is feels big enough to note on it
63% - besides the basics we’ve covered: getting rid of clothes, how to fold them to save space, not wrinkles, and look neat, how to organize one’s closet (which I’m adopting, but need to tweak slightly), and books. I find her views on books morally offensive, but think they’re probably good advice for normal people non-bookworms Definitely glad I got the manga version. It’s very straight to the point about things. I appreciate that it addresses all the natural objections you’ll have to the advice
I was personally disappointed that the edgy murder fantasies only lasted a few chapters. I didn’t really get the point in making it his defining trait - to the point of making it the title - if it was just gonna go away forever. Enjoyed the story otherwise, tho I got a bit bored after S2 of the anime
If you mean you never had violent ideation as a teenager, then yes, you are on the lucky side (or you forgot). If you mean that specific ideation, I mean, everyone is different (the most typical form is random thoughts of taking yourself out of this world), it doesn’t make it less realistic
(Also, from a teenager’s point of view, she looked at him funny, that’s not nothing, because teenager brains are borked)
Well, as long as they don’t get bland, anything is fine.
I mean, if they were consistent thoughts, then it would be a different story (both literally and figuratively). In the rest of the first volume, he just moves on to other weird behaviors that also feel typical of his age range, so in that sense, I would say they are representative.
I’m not an expert, but that’s not how I interpreted his thoughts/behavior. The moment he realized that he could do it, he immediately went “actually no”.
It’s just teenage brain random stuff. Same as the classmate saying he wants to make her into his sex slave.
I mean, that would be fine too. It would be nice to see him get over that phase while falling for her. (That being said, the realization he had in the library definitely feels enough to justify him moving on from that)
I wanted to be done with this book by New Years Eve, but I’m still forcing myself to finish it, just in case the last few chapters pull a miracle. For now, I just need to share this gem of a quote:
I returned to my desk, sharpened my pencils for the afternoon, and got back to work. Even if anyone saw fit to comment, you could hardly fault my work habits. I did exactly the work I was asked in exactly the prescribed amount of time, and did it all as conscientiously as possible – that was my method. I surely would have been prized at Auschwitz. The problem was, I think, that the places I fit in were always falling behind the times.
But that probably couldn’t be helped.
Not sure if it is supposed to read as sarcasm, if I’m meant to think the narrator is an idiot at this point, if this is some deep metaphor that is going whoosh over my head, or if Murakami just had a weird fascination with N*zism while writing this book, because my god, this is the third reference that pops out of nowhere about Auschwitz in a book that barely has a plot so far (60% in)
ブラック・ブラック・ロータス vols 1-3. Really strong beginning it didn’t have any idea what to do with. I haven’t been this disappointed in a manga in a while. At least, the art is nice. Author is same as watanare, probably more skilled in that genre than mystery (I did not like watanare either but it seems really popular so it must be doing something right)
きたない君がいちばんかわいい vol 1. This is one of the yuri manga I see much praise for especially for people who like “toxic yuri”. I also heard a lot of people found the content too upsetting/graphic. Honestly so far it failed to either upset or impress me. It’s a very breezy read though. I’ll probably continue on just to see what the fuss is about.
Now Reading:
山田と加瀬さん vol 2. I came back to this series after a while. This volume might make me realize why people dislike the university section. I feel like it keeps repeating the same 3 plot beats (kase is too busy to see yamada, yamada is jealous, yamada’s friend is clueless) infinitely. Still not bad & I’m having a good enough time, but it went from one of my favorite yuri to “decent”.
リミット vol 1: really enjoying what I am read of it so far and looking forward to read more. I don’t read much shoujo and a lot of it is not for me, but the survival angle is really interesting. I also really like the art.
I’ve skinned parts of this in English, and she it has really nice arc with a dark vibe. Had no idea there were 3 volumes. Btw you didn’t leave a resting for vol 2-3, so if I didn’t know any better I’d have thought you liked the series, based on your vol 1
I enjoyed 女同士とかありえないでしょと言い張る女の子を、百日間で徹底的に落とす百合のお話 1 | L20 (aka ありおと) pretty well, though as @bbo pointed out of the novel, it could potentially be described as “SA with a plot” (I’m not sure I’d describe it that way, but it’s at min dubcon). Oddly(?) I’m way less bothered by the consent stuff in it than わたなれ - mostly bc it’s clear what you’re getting into, and it doesn’t try to dress it up as something nice and sweet
I keep saying I need to come back to it once of these days. If nothing else, to have some college yuri to read. I’ve apparently read through vol 3 (vol 8 on Natively), and seemingly liked it better than vol 2, but I don’t have the best memory of it.
What’s the gyst of the series/volume? The plot summary was a bit ピンとけぇへん for me
The title made me think of キミ恋リミット ガレットワークス | L24?? - which I really enjoyed! Especially appreciated that one of the significant characters was homeless. I don’t think I’ve seen that in other yuri
I randomly picked this up again to distract myself from irl 片思い and really enjoyed it. Also found it a lot easier than I was expecting - even accounting for reading with audiobook. I do think the Phantom Bullet and Yuuki arcs are objectively harder with vocab tho. So that make some sense. I’m really impressed by the narrator for these books
Additional Thoughts (mild spoilers)
While I’d already read the super fun Jotunheim sub-arc part (not in anime), I still got to read the 片思い with my [adopted] brother who’s actually my cousin storyline. The climax of it is one of my favorite moments in the entirety of SAO - especially the anime, Taketatsu Ayane’s voice acting is incredibly emotionally raw in that scene - though I think the conclusion is a bit “um that’s it?” I do appreciate that by the end of the book, Suguha hasn’t really gotten past her feelings yet, but is able to shift to a healthier, less agonizing position with them
In general I love reading how painful the whole thing is for Suguha. Like I can’t relate on the incest feelings thing, but I can very relate on having unrequited feelings for someone really close to you who’s already in a very committed relationship (thankfully not my current situation). And for all the story’s arguable flaws in this, I think it really portrays Suguha very well. Not that I want poor Suguha to suffer, but I’ll be here enjoying the ups and downs, as I read.
Even the parts with Asuna being held captive are more interesting in book form. Tho the battle and confrontation parts were still a bit boring to sit through. They’re well written, I’m just impatient
Anyway that’s my first novel of 2026, and I feel more inclined to get back to Book 6 at some point
My friend gave me an English copy, so I’m reading side by side. So far I find it much more enjoyable - and clearer - in Japanese. 19th Century Irish-English is rather confusing to me in some parts (アメリカ人のせいかな). Otoh the お嬢様 JP style works perfectly for me. It’s also been a good refresher on some vocab I haven’t seen in a while. The experience reminds me of when I was reading 若草物語 | L39 (Little Women) - tho that was a lot harder for me. This feels comfortable to read
I feel bad that means I’m temporarily neglecting FLESH & BLOOD 1 | L35 - but Carmilla’s a pretty short book, and like OG lesbian vampire - why haven’t I read this yet?! I still need to get back to 凜として弓を引く 青雲篇 | L27 2 (which I’m enjoying) and クラスで2番目に可愛い女の子と友だちになった8 | L28 - which seemingly isn’t going in as deep on the 片思い/三角関係 that I was really loving in the previous book
That’s odd, I can see my ratings I left. I actually hadn’t rated the first volume and rated that one later. If you were looking at the update feed that might be why you didn’t see the others.
That’s what has bothered me most in watanare, the tonal dissonance, I do not have an issue inherently with problematic content being depicted categorically. At the same time I think I am happy to label this author not for me after 2 attempts at different genres.
I didn’t get that far in yet, but it’s a survival story. A class trips bus crashes and the handful of survivors have to fend to theirselves. One of the survivors is the bullied girl in class, and the mc is complicit in her bullying as she is one of the popular girls and an extreme conformist. The dynamics are shaping up to be interesting.
Though at the same time, this early in vol 1 I also thought black black lotus was shaping up to be interesting so who can say.
Update on this: I finished vol 2 and almost dropped it because I was still quite bored. Halfway through vol 3 it finally feels more interesting. If nothing else they’re such quick reads I don’t feel like I’m wasting time.
It’s unclear when I will get more
Definitely glad I got the manga version. It’s very straight to the point about things. I appreciate that it addresses all the natural objections you’ll have to the advice
