It feels like I didn’t get much done this week but I guess I forgot all the manga I read on the plane on the way home from Japan. Gonna try to make this a quick report because I’m still not totally readjusted to the timezone and I’m pretty tired.

殺し愛 vol. 4-5, pretty good. I bought the next three volumes to see what happens. The story is getting pretty interesting and it’s making me wonder if it’s all been planned as a single story and not a continual series. チェンソーマン vol. 12-13, not quite as strong as the latter half of part 1 but that’s probably to be expected. A good mix of heart and humor like normal. 古見さん vol. 27-28, not bad. The amogus arc was surprisingly entertaining and I like seeing 阿瀬 living her best life. Finally, トニカクカワイイ vol. 22, wrapping up the backstory arc in an interesting way that tied a few threads together. Hopefully the next volume will show some real development in the present day.

For anime I caught up on もののがたり (ep. 4-5) and it was alright. If it wasn’t a current-season show I probably would have dropped it by now but it’s easy to manage one episode per week. I feel like they’re going for a 呪術廻戦 thing and just not really capturing what makes it good. Buddy Daddies (4-6) was as good as ever, trying to get みり into daycare and help her make friends with the other kids. シュガーアップル・フェアリーテイル seems to have finished one arc and moved on to the next. Still quite good and it struck me how unusual and refreshing it is for a “hobby”-focused fantasy series to not be an isekai. Finally, caught up on 僕のヒーローアカデミア and I feel like it’s finally reached a point where it’s worth watching. Every episode this season so far felt like kind of a waste of time considering I’d already read the manga.

Finished ドーン・トレッダー号の航 (8:54, med-high focus). I remember being struck by the choice to translate “sweet water” as 真水. It’s a choice which isn’t necessarily obvious; I know when I first read the story as a kid I definitely thought of “sweet” in the sugar sense.

Finally, I read about half of 青春ブタ野郎はハツコイ少女の夢を見ない. Vol. 7 in the series, and the final arc that has been adapted (as the second half of the movie, which I haven’t actually seen). I can definitely see why this and the previous book were adapted together as one film. The themes of self-sacrifice and self-centeredness are still present but from a different perspective. It’s interesting seeing two different takes on the same core emotion (wanting the people you love to be happy, even if it means causing grief for yourself). I’ll probably be finishing this next week and I’m excited to see what comes next.