This week I wanted to incentivize myself to get back to manga after getting dangerously close to falling behind pace on my yearly goal. The challenge was to read 14 volumes (two per day) or I’d break my streak and not post a report this week. At the time of writing I’m technically through 13.75 volumes but I’ll be reading in bed to finish the last one right after I post this.

Rapid fire: 5分後の世界 vol. 2 has good moments but the pacing is bad and the main character has a bad case of the author thinking he’s cooler than he actually is. Might read vol. 3 since I already have it but I doubt I’ll be paying to read more. Kingdom of the Z vol. 6: feels like a rushed ending to the series. 賭けからはじまるサヨナラの恋 vol. 3: really good ending to the series; lots of funny moments and also some really good emotional payoffs. ダンダダン vol. 9: the kid who loves robots ended up being more entertaining than I expected and the new girl is really cute. 地獄楽 vol. 1: read this in order to fill in some gaps from last week’s episode and get a bit ahead of the anime; excited to see it animated and will probably be reading the rest soon. 葬送のフリーレン vol. 4, 5, 6: in a bit of a “training arc” but the pacing is snappy and I’m really enjoying it; it’s done a bit of that thing where you get a flashback instead of a battle scene and I always love to see it. ココロのプログラム vol. 2: cute and good, with a 書き下ろし chapter that had me crying. トニカクカワイイ vol. 23: nothing happened. 殺し愛 vol. 9: rekindled my interest in the series, hopefully we can keep it up (also saw までを for the first time, exciting). アオのハコ vol. 9: tummultuous and really good; high level expressive art and あやめ is still best girl. それでも歩は寄せてくる vol. 10: short and sweet, finally ahead of the anime.

All I watched for anime this week was Trigun Stampede (ep. 1-4). It’s a lot of fun and I actually really like the 3d animation, very out of character for me. Nicholas is obviously my favorite character so far.

Finally, about three hours of FFX, mostly story this time.