This week I read vol. 3 of 舞妓さんちのまかないさん and enjoyed it enough to buy the next one, which I’ll be reading soon. It’s surprising to me how long this series is actually. Favorite bit in this volume was seeing how Christmas is observed in the 花街 (which is to say, not at all) and how the girls have their own little celebrations during and after the holidays.

I decided to read 可愛いだけじゃない式守さん vol. 2 despite not liking the first volume very much and fortunately this one was a big improvement. The repetitive chapter formula is gone and there are enough new characters now that it’s possible to get some good variety (in particular the way Shikimori interacts with the main character’s mom is funny and wholesome). I still don’t see myself running out to buy more but I could see myself reading it in the future. Maybe I’ll watch the anime first.

I read vol. 2 and 3 of 珈琲をしづかに and decided to catch up with it this coming week. It’s kind of interesting; a lot of “hobby manga” are first and foremost about the hobby and often relegate the story to the sidelines, but this series flips the script. It’s character-driven by default and only as the characters open up and get to know each other does the “hobby” stuff start to play a bigger role. These two volumes touched on cupping and turkish coffee preparation, both of which I already knew about but it’s nice to learn some lingo. The story is going in a nice direction too. Looking forward to what comes next.

戦隊大失格 vol. 4 came out this week so I grabbed that right away. They’re pulling some shenanigans by occasionally switching perspective to follow the supporting cast and then cutting away without giving away all the details. Reading week to week is a pain but whenever a new volume of this series comes out I always reconsider whether I should give it a try.

Throughout the week, a chapter or two at a time, I read 方言って素晴らしいっていう漫画 vol. 1, which is another “dialect manga” except this one prominently features everyone’s favorite 津軽弁. There’s no line-by-line translation this time around and half the time I have no idea what the main guy is saying but neither does the main girl so it’s fine I guess. I’m pretty much just feeling my way through everything and occasionally making connections but it’s still a big mystery (and as a result, it’s kind of exhausting to read). I’ll be finishing this off as I fall asleep tonight, just wanted to get my report done so I can turn in early.

Caught up on 着せ恋 and ヴァニタスの手記, and watched ep. 9-10 of 赤髪の白雪姫. 東京２４区 was delayed this week so no new episode unfortunately. I should probably pick up some other current-season shows so my week can be a little more populated.