This week began and ended with two chapters each of 本好きの下剋上 vol. 1, which I have just now finished. I enjoyed this book a lot all the way through and I actually have the next two volumes sitting right next to me, freshly delivered from Mandarake. It’s still up in the air whether there will be a spinoff wanikani book club to continue the series, but either way I’ll definitely be continuing. The last few chapters revealed some interesting information about the world which had been left unclear, as well as a hint about what the 下剋上 in the title might actually refer to. Feeling good about having finished this; it makes my fifth novel this year and it was a lot longer than any thing else I’ve read.

For my weekly manga I read さとうとむとう vol. 1. “Two weirdos at school” might be a common premise nowadays but I’ve yet to be disappointed by it; the characters and writing in this were entertaining and I could definitely see myself continuing to read it. It’s a pretty new series, which is always fun.

Since I’m back in the land of highspeed internet for the first time in a good long while, I decided to check out Netflix’s offerings for anime and…there’s not too much. I settled on a movie I’d never heard of, 海獣の子供. It had a pretty strong start with some quite lavish visuals, but I didn’t end up liking it too much. The last half hour of the movie was essentially an extended fever dream sequence and I ended up with no real clue what was actually going on. Oh well.

This week I’m actually putting in my report early (last week I had completely lost track of what day it was).

First priority this week was to stay current with 本好きの下剋上, so I read three more chapters before spending time on anything else. We had one about cooking (it seemed I was the only bookclub member who actually enjoyed this one) and the rest were dedicated to setting up plot developments which will theoretically serve as the hook for the next book. Just one more week until the main story is finished (with a bit of bonus content at the end).

The next thing I read was 阿波連さんははかれない vol. 4. I actually started it as something I could read while falling asleep, and that was an abject failure since I was laughing hysterically throughout the whole thing. Learned some good new words; one standout was 手相, just because I thought it was funny how the meaning was totally different than 相手 despite using the same kanji.

Over the last three days of the week I read one volume of 見える子ちゃん per day, which catches me up with the series. It started off good but has developed into something quite special; vol. 3 in particular had some very good character development and set us off on what seems to be a main trajectory for a while. Excited to see where this goes (of course I have to wait six months for the next one…). I’ve learned a lot of fun JK slang from this one; 既読スルー・いや量・待受・映え are some good ones in particular.

Finally, finished up my Bloodborne playthrough. Not a lot to report here but I did have one fun moment where I recognized 花澤香菜 as the voice actress for a character in the DLC.

Putting in my report a day early this time because I was able to catch up on all my stuff and I’d like to move on without awkwardly splitting my reading across weeks.

For the beginning of the week I was mostly just reading 本好きの下剋上. I was pretty busy with other things so it took me a bit to get through, The last chapter was pretty interesting because I actually predicted what was going to happen — マイン needs to make ink somehow, and my first thought was “just use lampblack!” Turns out that’s exactly what she ended up doing, though we’ve yet to find out how well it works for her.

Once I finished up this week’s bookclub quota, I was able to move on to 鬼滅の刃 vol. 22, which came out in the middle of the week. This volume was really good; we finally got a backstory for 伊黒 (the snake 柱), which was pretty interesting. The final battle seems to have reached a climax and I can only imagine they’ll wrap up the series in vol. 23. I’m very impressed by how so many plot threads are being tied up here; it seems like certain key elements were planned at least all the way back in vol. 2 and it’s very cool to see them paying off.

I also read 見える子ちゃん vol. 1, which I picked up randomly for free on cmoa the other day. I was hooked by literally the second page and it just kept getting better throughout. The gist is that the main character, みこ, is suddenly able to see all these weird monstrosities that everyone else is oblivious to, and she has to act as though everything is normal. The monster art is super detailed and disturbing, but the story is also surprisingly funny and downright wholesome at times. It’s a pretty young series so I’ll probably grab the rest of what’s out pretty soon.

Random bonus: I replayed Bloodborne up to probably the 2/3 point. I could get through this game with my eyes closed, but paying attention to the JP voice track is fun and noticing the changes made in loc is interesting. Also replayed a bit more Persona Q2 now that my sister has progressed with it.

This week I dug in and spent a bunch of time on 十三機兵防衛圏, with the idea of finishing it up before the English version launched on the 22nd. Didn’t quite end up making it in time but I did get there eventually. A 100% clear (including the platinum trophy but not including the optional bonus battle area) took me just about exactly 60 hours, of which over half were put in this week alone. I’m planning to write up my thoughts about it a little later but the short version is: really stunning experience all around, amazing story with a lot of very cool and creative ideas told in a super creative way.

It was a bit close at the end but I did manage to catch up to the WK book club on 本好きの下剋上. We’re past the halfway mark now and I’m still having a great time. This past week hit a page count peak so it’ll be pretty smooth sailing from here on out (especially since I don’t have anything new that I immediately plan to move on to).

This week I finally finished 狼と香辛料, so that’s good news. Once I readjusted to the 10pg/day pace it was much more sustainable, though honestly I wish I had shelved it and spent that time doing something else. Overall I just really didn’t enjoy it, and after thinking about it I can only chalk that up to the author’s writing style — the economics bits are clearly written for someone who already enjoys the topic, and that’s just not me.

The majority of my input came from 13 Sentinels, which just keeps getting better. I’m at 27 hours now and have probably just passed the 50% mark. Some sections are more difficult due to long strings of technical kanji compounds, but for the most part things are still going pretty smoothly and I’m able to pick up new words easily.

Rapid-fire minor contributions: I read a bit more of 本好きの下剋上 but ended up falling pretty far behind the bookclub, so I’ll have to catch up this coming week. Just one chapter this time. Three more episodes of 魔法使いの嫁; almost done with the anime at this point. I feel like it’s not quite as good now as it was in the beginning but I’m still enjoying myself. Also played some more Persona Q2 (my sister suddenly overtook me so I’ve got to catch up); about halfway through the third dungeon now.

Another pretty busy week…boy am I looking forward to finishing up 狼と香辛料. I was out all day yesterday and barely had any chance to read at all, so even after the work I had done to catch up (reading 12 pages per day instead of 10), I still ended up behind at the end of the week. Oh well. Honestly, the last few days’ worth of reading has been a huge drag. There’s a lot of scheming about how to get Holo out of a scrape, but it’s all politicking and economics talk which I am having a lot of trouble following. I basically just have to remind myself that I learned a lot by reading at low comprehension way back when, so theoretically this is all still beneficial.

I also managed to keep up with 本好きの下剋上, which is fortunately much easier and more enjoyable to read. I’m a little under halfway through the book now. The descriptions of the antiquated customs and technology continue to impress…some standout moments this week were a hog slaughtering party, hand-dipped candles, and an attempt to make papyrus (one of what will likely be many failed attempts at creating something like paper).

My favorite bit of reading this week was definitely 十三機兵防衛圏. I’m about 10 hours in and enjoying myself immensely. Pretty much every line is voiced, which makes it really easy to look up unknown words, but I’m having very little trouble following along (which was definitely not the case when I first started seeing trailers last year). It’s not a very long game so I expect to finish it pretty quickly if I can put the time in.

Played a bit of Persona Q2 with my sister, just cruising through the third dungeon. As usual, not much to report.

Watched the first 17 episodes of 魔法使いの嫁, which I’m enjoying quite a lot.

Last up, since I wanted to keep on track with at least one manga volume per week, I read ギャルと恐竜 vol. 1, which was just good fun. Super easy, not a lot of text, but the art and pacing are both hilarious. I could easily see myself recommending it as a first manga.