I might right up a product request, then, if you’re not totally opposed, and potential details could be hashed out there.
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So, I finished the book.
Going with what you said, the author even notes in the foreword of the なろう version
男ばかりの友愛。濃い友情。恋愛感情はないからBLじゃないと言い張る必要がある程度にはそれっぽい描写があるので苦手な人はお控え下さい。
(Emphasis mine).
Basically, you have stuff where the main character is on a date with another character, flirting mercilessly until said character melts into a puddle.
The author: they are good friends!
Errr, we may have a different definition of friendship, I guess.
My head canon is that the main character is very aware of how far he can push before going “too far”. Due to his circumstances, going “too far” would be a mistake and he just doesn’t make mistakes. That does make him manipulative, though, so I don’t really like that head canon 
In terms of plot… well, there are typical RPG-fantasy elements (adventurer’s guild with ranks, list of missions, etc), but the main duo is completely overpowered, so they just do things for fun. So far (that is, as for volume 1), it has been mostly a pretext to bring about the definitely not BL sequences.
I don’t know if we will get an actual plot later or if it will just keep going like that. Without plot nor err progress on the romance front, I feel like this series might get boring quite quickly… (In fact, the review of @basilsauce shows that some people may not even be able to stand the first volume )
I guess I’ll just go ahead and upload that as a review as well.
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Excellent, thanks for your thoughts! Hopefully I can get around to this volume sooner or later; I’m curious what I’ll end up thinking about it.
I’ve seen this with a couple of other series; one in particular stands out in my mind: every single main and side character save one is male, the not-boyfriend to the main character spends 3/4 of their time thinking about how awesome the main character is and the remaining 1/4 being in bodily contact with them (just to protect them from danger, of course). Character #3’s informal role is to keep definitely-not-boyfriend focused and not hugging main character constantly, etc. The author also feels a need to put out a statement that, guys, this is just shoujo, definitely not BL although I can’t tell the readers what to believe at the end of the day.
Makes me wonder if there’s an industry mandate circulating somewhere that, once your work is categorized as not-BL by the publishing house, you need to stick to the narrative so as not to potentially scare off customers? I wonder how often it works, though; I had a friend see the cover of the first volume of that series I linked above, and her first question was, knowing nothing else about the series, “is that one of those boys love books?”
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I feel like it’s more the other way around: you want to get published with a label that has as broad an audience as possible (i.e., I assume, the 男性向け category), so you need to convince the publisher that it’s absolutely not BL, trust me bro, I’m a BL expert, I mean just trust me.
I do wonder how the meeting actually went, though.
Editor: why are they holding each other?
Author: they are roommates!
Editor: *visible confusion*
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Wow; looks like Bookworm’s main character is getting a super nice figure! I haven’t even read any of the series and that’s an awesome figure.
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36,801円(税込)
ouch is all I have to say 
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That’s how you know it’s quality, haha.
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Same with me. That looks really well done!
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I finished the コーヒーが冷めないうちに series. I don’t think they are particularly good. I have issues with the author’s view on women. However, they are easy. So, perfect for some mindless listening practice.
I also just finished 探偵チームKZ事件ノート お姫さまドレスは知っている | L27 which is the 14th book in the series.
And they are just getting worse and worse...
I have always had issues with how boys (überhumans) and girls (malicious & useless) are portrayed but this time there was literally a scene where one of the boys hurt the girl verbally and the others just went like “well, you know how he is. It’s fine. Just don’t take it to heart.” and at no point did anyone confront the dude and make him apologize. What exactly are we teaching girls reading this book? And another scene where one of the boys literally orders (!!!) the girl to go home (and all the other boys agree), because she is a girl and this is something only men can do. Uhm, excuse me? That book was written in 2014 not 1950. And stuff like this is all the time in every book. The series is popular enough to now be at like 30 volumes. What are parents thinking? These books are meant for “self-insertion” but the character you are “self-inserting” into, is depicted as a weak, useless, friendless girl with absolutely 0 redeeming qualities. And so far, there has not been much character development. Her whole identiy is bound up into being part of that group of boys who don’t even treat her as an equal.
These books annoy me so much but at the same time I keep reading them because for me as an adult, they are so stupid that it’s kinda fun. 
Last but not least I started the next 本好き book (#5), continued with the BC read 七回死んだ男 and started エステサロンは秘蜜の香り 恍惚の甘い刺激 which is the purest of pure 百合 smut. 
reminded me of this:
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How much I love to start reading books in Japanese! So far I haven’t nearly read anything apart from textbooks. Although they provide a good basic for my mind I love to learn more by reading literature novels. But it seems there are a lot manga books to find but less from literature authors. I’d love to share recommendations for books of this kind.^^
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Actually, figures are not my thing. 
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You dodged a bullet then!
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I just finished サイレント・ウィッチ V 沈黙の魔女の隠しごと | L29
The first third was a bit slow, but things ramped up towards the end.
Which means I do want to know what happens next, but, at best, I would have to wait at least 4 months.
Also, based on the あとがき, I guess they (meaning mostly the editors but also the author) are aiming for 8 or 9 volumes. The author also revealed that the original plan (from the publisher side) was to finish everything in 3 volumes OR (if sales are good) in 5 volumes, mentioning that it was hard to choose what to cut. But thanks to (apparently) insanely good sales, no choice required (in fact, the author is adding more content).
And based on that, I am wondering if I should just go ahead and read the rest of the series on なろう or wait 
Or read both, like I did with 本好き.
Edit: fourth sentence in the next chapter and there’s already a major-ish plot difference between the web and published version. *Sigh*
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So I finished 父と私の桜尾通り商店街 | L30 (learnnatively.com) yesterday and honestly I was a bit disappointed, but perhaps that was partly because the book was not to my taste and partly because my expectations, based on the cover and blurb, were for something quite different. I expected a sweet short story collection like 木曜日にはココアを | L30 (learnnatively.com) or perhaps something along the lines of 森崎書店の日々 | L32 (learnnatively.com) and instead I got some bizarre stories with fantasy elements and some miserable slice of life stories. I think I may stick a little bit to what I know for my next read, either a Keigo Higashino or the next in Nazotoki ha Dinner no ato de! Has anyone else recently had a book that didn’t turn out how they expected, for better or worse? 
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Mostly just manga, in my case, which isn’t surprising given that I’m much more likely to spontaneously pick something up based on the cover/art style than I would be for a novel. Nothing absolutely terrible so far, just boring, haha. Either that or the manga was way above my reading level at the time and I was just left staring at a wall of text.
Kudos to you for going through the whole book if you didn’t really enjoy it, though. I know it’s tough for me to continue reading if the book really isn’t pulling me in.
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Haha I sometimes find myself hate reading… I think if I had easier access to Japanese books it would be different, but I either have to order off amazon jp or go abroad to buy them! Once I’ve finally got my hands on a book I can’t bear not reading it, since I put effort into getting it, so I only have one DNF in my Japanese book collection.
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Do you live somewhere where proxy shippers (like Buyee, FromJapan, Japan Rabbit, etc.) can ship to you? Having the secondhand market be open to you is a real game-changer.
I used buyee once but the costs actually worked out about the same as amazon jp. The cost of shipping is usually the same as the book itself, so everything is basically double. I’m in the UK, so if anyone has any hot tips let me know 
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Gotcha, yeah, the shipping prices are what make up for the cheap used books. All I can say in my experience is that it’s generally better to buy in bulk via proxy; one or two books almost certainly won’t be worth the shipping price, but if you’re ordering 10-15/buying stuff other than books, depending on weight, it’s more likely to even out.
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