So I went back to the audiobook I recently purchased and turns out it’s a similar VA style but not Nakahara sadly 
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Narrated by: 稗田 寧々, 鈴木 勝美, 小林 大紀
I knew something didn’t feel as punchy as the anime, but couldn’t tell if it was because it was a narration by the audiobook. I guess that would be extremely expensive to produce and probably hard to book her for audiobooks.
It seems high quality nevertheless. And the first volume was like 7USD or so on audible.
I haven’t had much time to sit down and watch anything new lately, so I’ve been trying to squeeze in some listening comprehension by putting familiar shows on in the background while I’m doing housework and such. Just finished SPY×FAMILY S1 | 30, which I’ve watched before with ENG subs and read the manga for, and today started on 逃げるは恥だが役に立つ S1 | L28, which I’ve seen at least 4 times now and also read the manga for.
I feel like most other stuff I listen is either easy and uninteresting, which means I tune out when I have it on in the background, or interesting but too difficult to listen to comfortably while doing other things. But listening to already-familiar shows is nice because I can follow the story even if I tune out for a bit, and it helps me to pick up/remember more words in context because I know the overall meaning.
The problem is, I’m running out of familiar favorites to re-watch 
I tried the ホリミヤ anime the other day since I just read the first few volumes, but alas, it didn’t hold my attention well enough.
I’m continuing to watch ノッキンオン・ロックドドア S1 | L30?? as it airs and it’s a lot of fun. I think the first episode was probably the trickiest in terms of fast speech/vocab/weird phrasing as they were setting the tone of the show, as I did need to JP subs to keep up there, but this last episode I barely looked at the JP subs as we’ve slipped into pretty standard crime investigation talk.
I suspect I might not have enjoyed the book very much - it reminds me a bit of the show やっぱりおしい刑事 S1 | L29?? which I enjoyed a lot but was pretty ‘meh’ on the book おしい刑事 | L30
Some things just do better as a live format for me.
Rewatching large chunks of ソードアート・オンライン without subtitles. Did Fairy Dance, then GGO, and started in on Aincrad. This was inspired by watching SAO Full Dive, which is a nice mix of character side stories and live music performances.
Have been debating rewatching SAOP Aria of a Starless Night. I’m reading that story rn, but I have a ton of frustrations with the movie, btwn Mito really detracting from the OG story, and them leaving out various subplots/details that add a lot of depth to the story.
Finished rewatching SAO Aincrad arc without subs, which puts me at 1.5 seasons without subs. It’s been a pleasant surprise how much I can understand.
Oddly I tried ep 2 of ホリミヤ -piece- S1 | L24 without subs, and could barely understand it… A lot of the talk is very slangy, I guess. I quit after 5 min). I’m sure I’d be fine with subs, but I don’t have a way to do that on my phone, and my computer situation is currently a bit 複雑. Edit: I watched the rest, and it was better, but there was still a decent amount where I was lost
I’m on the last episode of 美しい彼 | L36, and I don’t want it to end! There are only 10 episodes altogether, and I couldn’t stop myself from watching them one after another, but now I’m dragging out the final episode… 
I recently binged
out of boredom and not feeling to do anything that requires too much brain power and went ahead and started S02 too
While I enjoyed S01, S02 feels very dull.
I just watched 赤ずきん、旅の途中で死体と出会う。 | L30??
I enjoyed the style, I’m not sure it would be for everyone, but you can get a good sense from the trailer. It’s also the first time I’ve watched a movie entirely in Japanese just using Japanese cc so that was a nice feeling of accomplishment 
Because it came up in the reading thread… I am now re-watching ベルサイユのばら S1 | L43?? for the [insert random number here] time. 
not like I have 2 books and a VN to read or anything… 
So because I only have half a dozen or so shows and movies that I’ve started and not finished, I decided to start two news shows 
封刃師 S1 | L30?? is ~30 minute episodes, quite easy to follow even sans subs, a bit unintentionally silly like all 30 min “serious” dramas are. I can see myself reliably finishing this because it’s very ‘brain off’ content for me.
For anyone wondering, because the 汚れ刃 kill without blood, there’s basically no bloody scenes so far and doubt there will be any in the future.
I also started Nのために S1 | L33 which is ~60 min episodes, much heavier content (based on a book by 湊かなえ), and lots of dialect speech from old men so I’m barely hanging on at times without having any subs. That said, it’s still great and I’m enjoying it. It’s reminding me I need to finish 最愛 S1 | L32 though
Just saw the movie long first episode of 葬送のフリーレン and finally I understand the name of the MC フリーレン (German word for “to freeze”): She doesn’t like the cold 
I started watching an old series, as the mood has been a bit low lately for me, I knew this stupid comedy one would at least lift me up for a while:
I’m a few episodes into 消えた初恋 S1 | L23, which is also available as a manga, 消えた初恋 (series) | L23, which I might try after I finish the series, and LN, 小説 消えた初恋 (series) | L30??.
It’s cute and a bit silly, with the occasional moments of brilliance…
There started something that’s really funny, well, at least in the first episode: 私の推しは悪役令嬢。 S1. Let’s see how it goes on.
Signed onto Netflix and saw this:
And yet I’m trying to finish the series and movies I’ve already started 
It’s standard length, but it did feel slow… I tried the manga a while ago and put it down at that same spot bc of the pacing. Gonna give the anime another ep or two to see if I’m into it. I really like Frieren’s VA/voicing style at least
Just finished 青い花 | L24?. It was a bit odd, but good enough to keep watching despite that. It felt a bit patchy in places, and left me wanting to read the manga, for a fuller experience. The vibe and style are definitely unique.
It’s not the most captivating yuri series, but the characters are portrayed really well, and feel very realistic. If you’re ok with a character-driven story, then it might be a good choice. Linguistically there’s nothing particularly special or tricky
Ok, they showed in fact episode 1-4 in one go and TMDB called it episode 1, at first, and corrected it later. Therefore also the chaos in the series’ activity list.
Oh wow, that’s intense… Are you watching it on TV or something?
I watched it years ago and enjoyed it. While it certainly has issues (at least partly because it’s a partial adaptation) it led me to watch 放浪息子 (same original creator), which I liked even more. And then 放浪息子 became the first manga series I read start to end in Japanese and loved it. The mangaka’s style is very jumpy, skipping scenes and expecting you to fill in the gaps yourself, but overall I really like her style and stories. (She’s the top author in my reading stats right now.)
By the way, I did start reading 青い花 to try to get that fuller experience, but I paused after volume 4. Nothing wrong that made me pause, just needed a break. I’ll definitely finish It at some point, but not sure when.
