But in the manga she did want to recognize her as her daughter before that. Plus, more daughters = more marriages.
I feel like it would have made sense if Rosalie had ended up married to the guy… but instead we just randomly deviated from historical accuracy for nothing 
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I read more of Jeweler Richard today than expected. I think I’m getting used to it already, which is nice; means it’ll only take me a while instead of forever to read the manga lol. Also I forgot the case with the lesbians was the second one.
I also almost didn’t get to finish the subchapter of 2.43 I was on because something happened that I wasn’t expecting to happen already and it was worse than if I didn’t already know the outcome. (Keisei’s kantoku tries to headhunt Chika at HaruKou, but Chika turns him down and says he’s not going anywhere other than Seiin, except he does! He transfers to Keisei for 2nd and 3rd year! I figured he’d decide to after HaruKou, but I didn’t think it’d be after turning down Wakatsuki’s attempt to recruit him during the tournament! This isn’t even the subchapter called HEADHUNTER, that was the last one; this one’s BATON PASS. What is this. Although maybe I should have seen it coming since we did meet Wakatsuki in HEADHUNTER. I didn’t even realize there wasn’t any headhunting in that subchapter until today, there was just him going, “Hm, I think I see now why Hata-sensei didn’t snatch him up,” I didn’t make the connection that he’d then go and try to do just that himself right after the match!) So yeah I was hit pretty hard by the emotional dysregulation. I didn’t quite have to lay down flat on the floor, but I did still have to sit there and like freak out over it for a while. But I recovered, and I finished it. Yuni’s interaction with Subaru was nice—also unexpected (although from the title, maybe I shoulda lol), but not in a catches-me-off-guard way. And now I’m finished with ch 1, and 1/4 way through the arc! Oh man, I don’t want to take another break from it, but I think I might need to. This is way different from reading something I’ve already seen a billion times in the anime.
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Finally finished 五龍世界(WOOLONG WORLD)―霧廟に臥す龍 | L35. It’s a good book, but I’m a bit exhausted after reading it and it never quite got from “good” to “compelling”, which is a problem when it’s such a slog vocabulary-wise.
Going on to 君死にたもう流星群4 | L29. Been a while since I read the last one. It’s a mediocre series, but enjoyable enough and easy to cruise through.
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I read volume 4 yesterday and I reaaaally liked it. I loved the focus on the relation between Oscar and André with the backdrop of the French Revolution. And then Oscar used the cursed word
(in my head, André’s reaction is “nooooo don’t say that now!”)
And then they both fricking die, as expected
Now volume 5 is back to historical narrativization or whatever you would call that and my interest is plummeting again because I still don’t like Marie-Antoinette (and never will).
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I think at times Rose of Versailles is successful at making the reader pity Marie Antoinette, but she’s impossible to like; I’m convinced that (even if she was the Queen of France) she wouldn’t have such a big part in the story if manga editors didn’t think, in this era, that a shoujo manga NEEDED a pretty, feminine heroine to carry the story.
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That might be the case… Maybe the author had to do that as a bargaining chip to spend more time on Oscar… but that’s kinda sad to think about.
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In the middle of 彼女が言わなかったすべてのこと | L30?? and I’m enjoying it SO much! I like Sakuraba Kazuki because so many of her books do a good job of balancing fun elements and serious elements (admittedly I did not finish 私の男 | L30??, because that was too much child abuse for me).
And that’s what this one is like for me so far; on the ‘downer’ side, there’s cancer and misogyny and gendered violence, and on the up side there’s a parallel-worlds romance developing between Nami and Nakagawa, two old friends who ran into each other… and then went home, somehow, to two different Tokyos in two different timelines.
But 2020 has just started.
And the COVID epidemic has just started… but only in Nakagawa’s timeline.
I’m on the edge of my seat.
(Also, I’ve never had chemotherapy, but the descriptions of Nami mourning her old life and her old levels of energy and the way she used to be able to think and live… I think that’s going to be really relatable for anyone who’s dealt with chronic illness or chronic pain. I cried.)
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I randomly picked up あなた | L27 after realizing that simply reading an “easy” book (orange 1) isn’t that easy, if the content bores me to death 
I really struggled with orange, mostly because I couldn’t keep focused. So I still have to make sure to find a sweet spot out of interesting enough and not too difficult. I finished あなた in like 3 days and had fun with reading again!
I feel like 赤川 次郎 could be a safe bet for that after reading あなた, so I am also happy one of his books was picked for the Intermediate Book club over at wanikani
Anyway, I’m not sure how I would feel about あなた if I read it in a language I am fluent in, but in Japanese I enjoyed it because it was challenging in a good way and the story kept me engaged. This was also the first time I had to keep notes for all the character names, I didn’t do so in the beginning and after a time skip I got completely confused with the cast of characters I think from now on I will keep a list of characters to refer to more often.
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He is 100% an airport novelist I feel the same way about reading him, I don’t think I’d care much for it in English…unless I were bored on a plane
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I finished the book!
Well, technically, the second half was a 外伝 story. I’m really glad to see Oscar again (and I enjoyed the spooky vibes).
Sadly, the edition on Natively is like the only one that does not include this story. I requested the book itself to be added with a note that, in my mind, it belongs to the same series (considering that it usually is sold as such).
(Edit: oh, I keep forgetting, but I wanted to say Oscar made me think of the Chevalière d’Eon (the knightesse of Eon). It’s the right place and the right time period too… (completely different life story though)
I started reading a bit of a bunch of random books that looked interesting (despite having other books I need to read to return them to the library or book clubs ). I would like 48h per day please.
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I am glad you didn’t end up hating one of my favourites. 
I know I am somewhat blinded by nostalgia here but still…
I’d be fine with not having to work and sleep. (Or getting tired, for that matter…)
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I’m still reading 汝、星のごとく | L34, but progress has been very slow because it’s super 重い and sad. I normally love stories that are more on the depressing side, but I haven’t really been able to get into this properly yet. 
So, I’ve decided to take a break from it with another book and return to it after! 
Going back to some 純文学 with ##NAME## (just added it to natively but it’s not up yet, hence the Amazon link).
It was one of the nominees for the last round of the 芥川賞 and I’ve been dying to read it since one of the J-booktubers I watch covered it.
I’m really interested in seeing how it covers all the themes and topics it seems to have going on - the “digital tattoo” anyone who grew up in the internet era has, child idols and sexualization, feminism, BL, fan fiction. Let’s see!
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… and finished, in a little over a week (plenty of opportunities to read on trains, ferries, beaches and hotel balconies). This volume was a sort of side story set in England[*]; it wasn’t bad but I prefer the “normal” books in the series. I still have this week’s Maria Beetle club reading, and then 舟を編む | L36 which should last me to the end of the holiday.
[*] Apparently if you come here you shouldn’t bring nice clothes because they’ll get messed up in the laundry. Who knew?
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I am reading too much, atm. 
From my personal TBR:
探偵チームKZ事件ノート 赤い仮面は知っている | L27 still as ridiculous as ever. A 13 year old just became CEO of a French company. OK, sure. 
Clubs:
リング | L35 which I am really enjoying. We only just started but I had to hold myself back to not immediately read further… 
https://learnnatively.com/book/b26291e5b3 (本好き 1, link does not parse correctly ) well it’s not really reading but listening and it’s my… third? time and while I still remember the overall story, I have forgotten (missed?) so many details that it’s still a nice experience and it’s still my favourite volume (of the ones I have read so far). Later volumes are still good but you have less of the shenanigans and family life that makes this volume so fun to read.
マルコと銀河竜 This VN is all over the place. It jumps around a lot but it’s fun if you just go with the flow.
And soon, those will be joined by medium 霊媒探偵城塚翡翠 | L33 for the mystery BC.
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I loved everything that involved Oscar and André (and to a lesser extent Rosalie).
On the other hand, pretty much everything else felt too much like an illustrated textbook. Sometimes, it had those weird jumps were one page tells us about something, the next one about something else that happened a week later, and the next one yet another thing that happened a month later. Yet, despite the historical focus, the author still chose to change how some things happened…
In conclusion, not enough Oscar and too much Marie-Antoinette, but I still enjoyed the series overall (or maybe I should say on average?).
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are you gonna watch the anime? would be interesting how you find that in comparison. (since I came to it the other way around.)
I can still sing the German OP , though the Japanese is great as well…
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I did watch some of it as a kid. It’s been a while, but I don’t really feel like going through the whole thing. I don’t mind watching the specific parts I liked in the manga, though…
In any case, not in the near future, since I am already behind on library books (there’s 香君 上 that I need to return in a few days and I haven’t cracked it open yet) and there are more book clubs starting.
Also booklive just sent me a notification with a bunch of recommendations, but I will hopefully manage to ignore that.
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Finished その着せ替え人形は恋をする 1 | L25 today, pretty happy about it. It’s still difficult and there was more than a fair amount of lookups required, but I feel like I’m getting better, though there were still a few constructions I had to DeepL then reverse engineer. It’s like, I dunno, the possibility space of what I can read is really beginning to open up (as long as I’m willing to spend the effort).
Anyway going to drop a few rungs since the newest volume of 今日から始める幼なじみ 8 | L17 just came out and I love this series, then might see where I go after that…
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I read the assignments for my various book clubs today (medium 霊媒探偵城塚翡翠 | L33, 正欲 | L35??, 夏と花火と私の死体 | L28 ) and I had been planning to read more of 正欲 but I have had the most insane itch for medical drama lately so instead I read レゾンデートル | L30?? which is by the same author as 天久鷹央の推理カルテ (series) | L35 which…I ordered all the remaining books in the series off CDJapan 
I’m actually hoping that by continuing to read 知念実希人 I’ll knock JK Rowling off the top spot of my series page for Author Distribution, as well as Series Distribution (if I read all the 天久鷹央先生 books that’s nearly 4k pages to the ~2900 I’ve read in Japanese of the HP series)
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are you not reading manga or not tracking it? Most of my top series are manga. I hope premium will let me fiddle with the stats. 
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