This week I finally made time to get back to Soul Hackers 2. I have to say I’m really not feeling the battle system and I’m actually considering setting the difficulty to easy just so I can get through it to the story sections — which are fortunately a lot of fun. Ringo in particular is fun. The other characters are kind of annoying. I like the girl at デラマンチャ. Not a lot to say about this yet, I’m still pretty early but I wanted to at least mention it since I’m paying attention to it again.
The new season of anime has really kicked off now; I watched one episode each of Mob Psycho, Spy Family, 僕のヒーローアカデミア, Bluelock, 虫かぶり姫, and ようこそ実力至上主義の教室へ (yeah this one isn’t new but I’ve been asked to catch up to the beginning of season 2). Bluelock is off to a strong start; 虫かぶり姫 not so much but I’m open to seeing how it develops. New Mob and Spy Family are both excellent as expected.
Only finished four audiobooks this week, all repeats: ロジカルウィッチ (7:25, med-high focus), シスコンアイドル (8:24, high focus), and おるすばん妹 (9:49, high focus), from the 青春ブタ野郎 series; and 京都寺町三条のホームズ vol. 5 (8:45, med-high focus). Not really a lot to say about these. I read them all pretty recently — just last week in the case of ホームズ 5. Just good to have some stories on that I can understand without really trying.
Hit my goal of seven manga for the week by doubling down today. Nine of the series I follow all released a new volume on the same day this week, so I had my work cut out for me.
The first thing I read was ゆらゆらQ vol. 2. I’ve been sitting on this one for a while I guess, but the previous volume came out in november 2020 so it’s been quite some time since I last read it. Fortunately the premise is pretty simple and I was able to pick it up as just a gag manga. Extremely cute, I just wish it would come out a little more frequently.
Next was 僕のヒーローアカデミア vol. 36, which was just a roller coaster from start to finish. I keep thinking we must be at the climax and it keeps proving me wrong.
I decided to take a chance on リバイアサン vol. 1, which came out on the aforementioned big release day. It was apparently originally a joint project between a french writer and a japanese artist, but perhaps because of that all the text is 横書き and left-justified, which made it very awkward to read sometimes. The story is reasonably intriguing; a kind of battle royale aboard a sundered spaceship with only one cryosleep pod available. It didn’t turn out to be anything too special, but since it’ll wrap up in one more volume I’ll probably finish it.
Next was 光が死んだ夏 vol. 2, another one I’ve been waiting for for quite some time. This one wasn’t quite as horror-focused as the first one, which was kind of a bummer. It also felt kind of disjointed? Chapters would end and then pick up from somewhere completely different with no apparent link. Maybe it’s supposed to be disorienting. In any case, still very good and I’m a sucker for anything that’s written entirely in 関西弁.
Spy Family vol. 10 came out with some nice backstory on Loid and another chance for Yor to have the spotlight. We also got to see the Handler in action, very nice indeed. Apparently the internet lost its mind over the introduction of a certain character at the end of this volume but I remained blissfully ignorant.
The first of my double-feature today was 阿波連さんははかれない vol. 11, which was a rare 4/5 for me this time. I feel like the formula is starting to lose me a bit, which is too bad considering that the previous one felt quite fresh in a lot of ways. Not bad by any means, just a bit lacking. Some nice parts with える and たまちゃん.
Finally, 幼馴染とはラブコメにならない vol. 2. I wasn’t sure I would continue with this one after vol. 1, but I’m glad I did. There’s a new 幼馴染 in town and the new gag is that the existing two girls are trying to get in her way as much as possible (and she can’t tell because she’s a space case). I like how it’s leaning into the absurdity of the genre to do its own thing in a fun way.