Read some more manga recently. Almost a bingo, just got to find something free… maybe とつくにの少女 1 | L21?
- Setting is a workplace: スーパーの裏でヤニ吸うふたり 1 | L25 - discovered the first volume was free for a limited time and binged it. I really liked it! Not usually a fan of romance but it helped that they were actually working adults and Sasaki’s exhaustion is a mood.
- Oldest book in TBR list: 大海原と大海原 1 | L20 - gotta be Wadanohara, which is the very first native material I tried to read back in 2021 (thanks to the wanikani ABBC) - I only got through ch 2 before I stopped my japanese studying again. This time around I read most of it in a day, and might continue with vol 2.
Funnily enough, the reason why I even decided to join the Wadanohara book club despite not having studied Japanese for a while was because I was really surprised there was a manga adaptation - I’m pretty sure it’s based off of the RPGMaker game which I watched a let’s play (in English) of a long time ago!
Category: Workplace Setting
Date Completed: Feb. 18, 2024
Title: マグメル深海水族館 1
Stats: Manga, 201 pages, Natively Level 24
Notes: This one took me a bit longer to read while I juggled it with life, uni research, and my first foray into vertical-text novels (it’s been rough ahaha). But マグメル was perfect to read alongside my hectic days, being a gentle slice-of-life about working in an undersea aquarium. There was just a hint of deeper plot points, but not so intense that there was trouble picking it back up after a few days’ absence. I learned lots of names of deep-sea creatures while falling in love with the aquarium through the eyes of the main character („• ֊ •„) If you’re looking for a kind and gentle read that is both beautiful and otherworldly, I definitely recommend this one. (Thank you @pyororon for rec’ing this to me!)
I’m so close to my first bingo row!!
It somehow feels like I haven’t updated here for ages. I just finished 掏摸(スリ) | L31 (learnnatively.com) and I think I’ll use it for my “has won an award” box. It has won the 4th Kenzaburo Oe prize, a prize which was awarded only 8 times, from 2007 to 2014.
Finally back to this challenge!
I just finished 新! 店長がバカすぎて | L30??, which fits both “finish a series” (although it’s recorded separately from the first book on Natively; I have sent a feedback about it) and workplace setting. It also had no reviews/gradings and TECHNICALLY I read it over the course of 24h (I read a bit of it at the time I got it from the library, but started from 0 yesterday evening and finished it during my lunch break today). I guess that matches the definition of “in a single day” (but anyway, I just needed 3 boxes and that’s 4).
And with that, I have finished my BING(o) card!
Books:
麦ふみクーツェ | L34 New to me author, added to natively by me, in a single day, award winner, no reviews/ratings
私小説―from left to right | L40 Non fiction, random from my TBR, new to me, “for free” (from the library)
痴人の愛 | L42 for free (for real), new to me author, book club, bad cover; BINGO IN ONE
地獄くらやみ花もなき | L31 Debut, added by me, “for free”, new to me author, (non-human protagonist?), no reviews/ratings
吾輩は猫である | L48 Highest natively level, non-human protagonist, longest in TBR (nearly 10 years!)
新! 店長がバカすぎて | L30?? finish a series (although the author hints at the end that their might be another sequel), workplace setting, in a single “day”, “for free”, no reviews/ratings.
Time to make a new bingo card 
Okay, here it is! After BING(o), comes BONG(o). Because bing bong. I am very funny.
I used all the prompts and all TBR qualifiers. On top of the plain “random from your TBR”, I added “ultimate random”, that is, picked randomly from the entirety of the Natively library. In my case (because I rolled those dice already) that means the book here. (I had to do so to remove a redundancy but still get 64 prompts)
Anyway, I’m planning to do this one vanilla, one entry per box. I’m allowing myself to use anything (novel, LN, manga) BUT not the ones I have already used in the previous grid.
I guess that means I have to fill some boxes already, with the other things I read this year…
Vol2: 葬送のフリーレン 2 | L26
Book club: 今日からマのつく自由業! | L33
New to me author: 東京ヒゴロ 1 | L28
In a single day: 蟲師 1 | L29
Contains a character that speaks a dialect: 神様はじめました (series) | L28 (putting the series because I don’t remember in which volume she appears first)
Bad cover: TRPGプレイヤーが異世界で最強ビルドを目指す 2 ~ヘンダーソン氏の福音を | L40
Chosen for me: BANANA FISH 1 | L33
Edit: Published 2020~ TRPGプレイヤーが異世界で最強ビルドを目指す 1 ~ヘンダーソン氏の福音を~ | L40 (that means I am using different volumes from the same series twice, but I guess that’s legit?)
Edit2: Wait, I am dumb. 神社⛩️ 神様はじめました 第1巻 | L28 (I feel like I need to specify the dialect one more, in that case)
Edit3: 0~1 kanji in the title BANANA FISH 2 | L33 (already used volume 1)
Edit4: with those put in the grid. I’m sure I can fill more boxes, but whatever. I don’t want to just use manga 
It looks more like a calendar at this point 
Maybe I should have made the boxes square 
My design skills are negative.
If you feel adventurous, you can always replace all the manga by books in the end
Feb 22:
finish a series: DOUBLES!! ーダブルスー Final Set
I’m sad this series is over, but it was a good ending.
I have a feeling my next fill will be the debut work, so still no bing
I was going to try and finish my “longest in TBR” book today, but instead I saw this 50% coin back sale, bought あひる | L28 (learnnatively.com), started it and finished it. 
How did you like あひる?! I loved that one 
I’m still trying to process it, by I can say with certainty that I loved it. I’m finding I really, really like this author. She writes so simply, the text just flows as natural as can be, everything is crystal clear and straightforward, and then all of a sudden it isn’t
That’s the perfect way to describe it!! I just read her book とんこつ Q&A and I suspect you’d like it as well, since it’s all simple and straight forward until you find yourself thinking, wait wtf?! One for the list if you ever come across it! 
forgot about updating this oops,
no gradings on natively/new to you author/added to natively (all apply):
霊感男子はキスをねだる | L27 funky horror’ish BL, enjoyed it till the twist where the real horror turned out to be the creepy living human teacher sexually assaulting a classmate of MC, and later getting his hands on MC as well. Alas, it was short. TW for sexual assault
寮生諸君! | L30 cute historical (meiji era) seishun BL. Slow burn, kansai dialect, friendship, wooooo.
迷子の星たちのメリーゴーラウンド | L26 got this one because of the cover, short story collection about kids dealing with mushishi’ish issues (except without mushi and ginko and the satisfying chill vibes lmao). Ending felt hella unsatisfying.
award winning: 夜行 | L32 8th place in the 2017年本屋大賞 apparently, gonna count it as good enough cuz I def don’t see myself reading other fancy award winning stuff any time soon lol. A vibe but a bit too vague for my liking, like I thiiiink I get it, but I also don’t?? vibes.
book club: BROTHERS CONFLICT 1 | L24 finally 100%ed the game after starting it 2/3ish years ago aka time to go through the story again in book form. Bookclubbing the series with a couple of discord pals.
read in a day: 謎解きホームルーム 4 | L25 I know age wise I’m not the target audience n all that, but “こわーいホラーミステリー” is false advertisement lmao.
Oh, is this based on a game? Or is the game the source material?
Longest in TBR finished! 
I bought this back in the summer of 2021. At that time, I had only read about a 100 pages of my very first novel in Japanese It was chosen more or less randomly - I just knew I wanted something with yokai (and turns out, there weren’t really any in the book, although there is a strong supernatural element).
The game is based on the novels, but doesn’t adapt everything e.g. character POV side stories, nor does it go as deep into certain plotlines according a friend who has read it thrice over lol, so I’m rather curious to see it how it develops compared to the game.
Time to get going for me as well.
For the “read for free” box:
This is because I received this one as a present. 
I could place it in other boxes (e.g. no ratings/gradings/reviews, new to me author, most recently published book in 積読 pile, workplace setting) and might move it later on, but for the moment I will go with this box.
I enjoyed most of it, but unfortunately I did not like the ending all that much.
For the “debut” box:
This one was a quick read. Easy language. Heart-warming.
Took me a quite a while but I finally got my second square: 夜行 | L32 for a book that has a higher level than the ones I’ve read before. At least that’s what I’m using it for for now, maybe I’ll juggle things around later.
It was a really nice read and I think I’ll read more of 森見登美彦 at some point, the writing and atmosphere was amazing.
Would love to continue the bingo asap but next I’m going back to 准教授・高槻彰良の推察 for volume 4 because I’m missing the characters
and well who knows maybe if I hurry I can use that series to do the “finish a series” square (does it count if a series is still ongoing?)
