putting the ruri thing in spoiler tags just in case
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7GKp1er8DAU
I think it’s this?
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It wasn’t that specific one but yeah, parts of that are what I remember. Thanks for the link 
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It’s been awhile!
I’m still “working” (haven’t put them back on the shelf) through ドグラ・まくら | L32?? and 狼と香辛料 6 | L36, but I’m not very far in either and haven’t picked them up in… some time. I’m a bit more seriously still wanting to catch up on 異世界美少女受肉おじさんと | L26, just two volumes away! Maybe in the next couple weeks.
This year my goals are to focus on digital drawing and Chinese, and I’m actively keeping a daily log of what I do each day towards those. And for my first Chinese book, I’ve picked up a copy of ウォーリアーズ〈1〉ファイヤポー、野生にかえる | L25??! It was my first book in JP so it was the obvious choice.
The covers just keep getting worse…
If (Simplified) Chinese were added to Natively, I’d be excited to start tracking here too. I did see the call for developer partners, if my job allowed it I’d consider making the commitment to apply, as I’d love to help this site grow and stay the amazing resource it is. Though, like most job listings, I don’t meet the experience requirements to begin with 
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Did you use a particular online storefront to buy it? Or were you able to buy it locally?
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I spent a long time—several weeks—searching for alternatives, but having no luck I eventually paid the frankly absurd price (approaching 10x the book’s MSRP) for the one listing I found on Amazon JP. On the plus side it had free shipping and arrived very quickly, but still, going to need an alternative going forward
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I started reading ifの悲劇 | L35 (kinda random pick from my TBR, among stuff that have been in there for a while) and errrrrr the book starts with (not gonna spoiler it; it’s literally in the first few pages) the guy saying he is in love with his actual sister, who then confesses to him, followed by: 俺はその夜、彩を、実の妹を、貪るように抱いた。
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Why has it been 2 weeks since I last had an update 
I’ve felt the need to start picking up stuff that deals with LGBT themes recently - particularly (but not only) gender identity and asexuality.
I’m glad I finally finished this, after almost 2 years! I found it overall fairly enjoyable, and think it did a good job of representing ace & aro identities and terminology. I’d say the story was interesting enough (tho a little boring earlier on), and think it presented things very accessibly, while not getting overly deep into some of the more meta-discussions.
So far (37%) this seems to mostly involve storeis around difficulties with dating. I think one character was a bit gender nonconforming, but idrc details rn. You can tell it’s based on people’s real experiences, which is nice
I guess the MC is some form of nonbinary or agender (unclear which). I’m 37% in rn, and not quite sure how I feel about it just yet
I read somewhere that one of the MCs is closeted trans masc, but if that’s the case, it hasn’t been made clear yet. As sports manga go, I think it was pretty enjoyable, and not too overwhelming. The two leads seem interesting enough, so I may continue it
May try the following in the near future:
- ぼくらのへんたい 1 | L24
- カノジョになりたい君と僕 1 | L24
- https://learnnatively.com/book/86e8cbcf53/ - preview was ok. Starts off with gay protagonist saved by a mysterious lesbian
- 同居人の美少女がレズビアンだった件。 | L24??
- ボーイズ・ラン・ザ・ライオット 1 | L24 - trans boy, high school
- 青春マイノリティ!!(1) | L24?? - if I’m not mixing things up, the afab character is trans masc. Read the preview, seems like it will be just okay
FLOWERS -Le volume sur printemps-（春篇) - Visual Novel Club which I’m really loving so far (tho I’m already familiar with the section I’m in). Vocab and kanji are actually a good challenge. Flesh & Blood is on pause for me till I’m done with this. My original plan was to have F&B done before Flowers started, but life happened. Everything else is on an “if I’m in the mood” basis rn
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So it got more interesting? I dropped it halfway through because at times I felt like I was reading a Wikipedia article on asexuality instead of reading a story.
I enjoyed this one. I think it kept getting better as the series progressed.
This one is quite the mixed bag. I was pretty uncomfortable reading it at times, so I find it hard to recommend to a general audience (not to you specifically). It’s the only one in my list that I wrote “reader discretion advised”.
I just started this one since I got the physicals. Only halfway through the first volume, but so far so good.
This one was fine. Nothing special in its presentation or storytelling, though the transgender main character doesn’t easily pass, in contrast to most fluff trans manga where the character passes easily, so that does add some unique qualities to the story.
This one looks interesting. If you read it, please share your thought. 
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I read this in English in 2024… rated it 3.5 stars but I don’t remember much about it. It was nice that the main character isn’t solely defined by being trans and alot of the plot is about their fashion brand.
Incidentally, have you read
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With the caveat that I put this down two years ago, and didn’t reread the portion I’d already read: Eventually it got out the majority of what it had to say, so there started to be more plot, dialogue and character interactions. If you’re in it primarily for the story, then I’m split on whether to recommend picking it up again or not.
What did you enjoy/what improved about it?
Uncomfortable in which way(s)?
Oh, cool coincidence. Lmk how it is I guess. This one is tbh probly lowest on my immediate interest list
That makes me really want to read it tbh. I feel like that’s rare even in English stuff I’ve read (not that I’ve read a ton)
Will do!
Thx for the reminder
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I read the series in its entirety and I liked it. Some parts were fairly unrealistic but that was fine.
I really liked this one. 4 volumes felt too short.
Only read the first volume and it was pretty good. I really liked that the focus was not on the fact that the character is trans (it’s more taken as a “well, that’s a thing about him, whatever” which felt really refreshing). At the same time, I felt that the end of volume 1 kinda implied that focus may come sooner rather than later, which is partly why I put that series in my indefinite “will continue someday™” pile.
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Currently reading a novel in English so I’m just reading a few manga chapters on the side. Mainly One Punch Man since the first three volumes are currently free on the SJ app
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I haven’t yet, but it is on my wishlist.
Mostly I liked the characters and their interactions. And I enjoyed seeing the main characters grow more confident in who they were. I wouldn’t say the manga is deep, but it was an enjoyable read.
There are some non-consensual or borderline consensual sexual acts.
Yeah, that’s what drew me to it to begin with. I usually like the fluff, but some more realism is a nice change of pace as well.
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I am about halfway through the second part of ねじまき鳥クロニクル〈第2部〉予言する鳥編 | L33 by 村上春樹 after slowly working my way through part once since November. It has been a unique and unforgettable reading experience so far due to the fact the non-linear structure and pacing. In part 2 there have been ~50 pages so far of the main character inside the bottom of a well just pondering life and having a surreal experience in the darkness and a number of other digressions into the lives of side characters or bizarre dream sequences. It isn’t plot driven at all, so there isn’t really a force that propels me through the narrative, hence why my reading speed has been slow so far. However, when I do sit down to read it for an extended period of time I feel like my pace will naturally start to match the pace of the story - I’ll be floating along and lightly reading the dialogue or mundane details about the main character cooking or whatever (if you’ve read 村上 you know 
) and then suddenly there will be some line that comes out of nowhere and articulates a deep experience that hits emotionally and the scene comes together. The themes that the book explores, such as masculinity, pain, loss, and moving on from traumatic experiences, are also done in such an ambiguous way that reading it feels a bit like trying to solve a difficult riddle at times - there aren’t any clean answers, just like life. Truly 村上 at some of his best so far! I just hope it doesn’t take me another 3 months to get through the rest of the trilogy.
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Someone mentioned not long ago that kindle lookups seemed to not work as well anymore. I wasn’t sure at the time, but now that I’ve been reading more consistently again it’s clear that they were right. The lookups had issues before, but now it’s complete garbage. You used to be able to drag the cursor to force what was highlighted in case you needed to look up a longer word that wasn’t auto-selected. Now the dictionary never activates from doing that. This makes it basically impossible to look up compound words. I’ve noticed other issues, but that’s the big one for me.
I would report the issue to Amazon, but I’m always reluctant to reach out to Amazon Japan support. I just have this worry that they’ll see that I’m not located in Japan and blacklist my account. No idea if that worry is justified or not.
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For Christmas I asked for a Boox, and now I’m using ttsu on that instead precisely because of this issue.
I did notice when I added a book as an epub and not a kfx that it did better with the deconjugation, but it was still not as good as before. Obviously you need to de-DRM your books in order to have access to that option, but it might be worth your time to try.
I had forgotten how much better yomitan is though and now I’m spoiled and don’t want to go back to Kindle’s dogshit.
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Don’t make me get my third e-reader… 
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Yea I’m getting sick of some of the kindle limitations too. I want to start mining sentences again (and drop Wanikani) but kindle has stupid limitations that make it hard.
I actually ordered a second kindle today second hand, because the older models don’t update past a jailbreakable firmware version and I want to give Koreader a try. And see if I can get a pipeline going where I can mark words and somewhat automatically make Anki cards from them.
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Completely justified worry. Amazon is a terrible company. Last year I received an email from OFM because of a chain of shitty orders that went defective/INCOMPLETE from their warehouse in a short period of time.
After such email, which I appealed of course, they agreed to keep my account, but the threat to close it forever was there. I looked up OFM Amazon online, and it’s filled of terror stories.
Since then, no ebooks from them, and I just buy cheap physical stuff that I don’t mind not returning/loosing, as I don’t really want to risk the account (as it’s clearly flagged internally)
Have you considered installing KOreader in the kindle? Otherwise I got a fancy Bigme android ebook, which basically lets me run any appstore as an ebook, BW/Kindle/Kobo/JNovel…
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I haven’t really felt like messing with it. The main reason I still use Amazon is because I already own a Kindle and have bought all my books there, so it’s convenient. I do remove the DRM when I can (but latest update broke that and I haven’t figured out how to fix it yet). It’s just that moving to another platform is a huge hassle and provides no guarantee that it’ll actually be easier and won’t have similar DRM restrictions, etc.
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