This week I read three volumes of manga, watched a bit of anime, and read almost two chapters in my first novel.

First up was 鬼滅の刃 vol. 13 and 14, which I read back to back in pretty quick succession. While there was a decent chunk of time allotted to battle sequences, there was also a lot of monologuing and two character backstories, so it was a pretty good balance. I love the two new 柱 characters; 蜜璃 has a really cute backstory and I thought the wordplay around 無一郎’s name was really interesting.

My third manga was ３月のライオン vol. 1. I watched the anime ages ago, and in fact tried to read it back in May but it was quite a ways above my level. This time around I was pleased to find that I was able to read it without really any trouble at all — I only had to look up a few words through the whole book and the near-total lack of furigana wasn’t an issue. I’ll probably continue reading this series but I think I’ll skip to vol. 10 since that’s where the anime left off.

I’ve started going to the gym recently, and last time I downloaded episode 1 of 少女終末旅行 onto my phone to watch while I cycled. I’ll be making a habit of this going forward since I like to cycle for about 20 minutes anyway, which is just about perfect. Nothing major to report here; I was able to follow along pretty much perfectly but I’ve already seen a few episodes with English subs plus read the first volume of the manga, so I might not be able to accurately assess until I pass that point.

Finally, I read about a chapter and a half of 氷菓. I really liked the anime but it’s been a while — I think it was one of the first series I ever watched. So far the only thing of note is that Oreki’s sister has written him a letter asking him to join the classic lit club so it doesn’t close down. I’m reading this with the WaniKani book club and it’s been a bit rough getting into the rhythm. I’m sure things will get easier as I get more experience, so there’s nothing for it but to keep moving.