This week I polished off both of my remaining goals for the year (manga and novels).

I’ll mention 探偵はもう、死んでいる first; I started reading this a long time ago after enjoying the anime adaptation, but the novel itself fell flat for me. I had a long stretch in the middle where I couldn’t bring myself to read any at all and I kept extending and extending the deadline, eventually resolving to finish it on the 31st at a pitiful pace of two pages per day. This week I managed to find the motivation to dedicate a couple of days to finishing it off. There are definitely moments of effective writing and the characters are largely enjoyable. I’m not really sure why it didn’t click for me but ultimately I did finish it, marking my 12th novel of the year and completing that goal.

A little anime today as well; one episode each of romantic killer, blue lock, mob psycho, and 僕のヒーローアカデミア. Mob was the standout yet again. A really great ending to the series with lots of great payoffs.

For manga, I continued with chainsawman vol. 6-11, finishing up part 1 and putting me 1 over my manga goal for the year. What a wild ride. Despite having had a few key events spoiled for me before I planned to read it, there were also some really powerful moments that I didn’t see coming at all. The snowball fight scene was incredibly artful and had me sobbing, and I think the line at the very end where Makima says that the world would be better off without クソ映画 was a perfect summary of what I took away as a core message of the series; that pain and darkness in your life can make the moments of happiness even more meaningful.

Lastly, I read よつばと vol. 8. Nearly every page had me screaming laughing. Top moments: Dad running around outside the diner looking for Yotsuba after she follows Torako inside; Yotsuba absolutely thriving in the typhoon and then getting blown away; shouting いらん！ at the girl selling yakisoba at the 文化祭; Dad getting defeated by a tengu at the festival. I love this series.