Due to popular demand, this week’s report is also available in Japanese.

Today I finally finished 面白ければなんでもあり. My favorite parts this week were:

• ベストを尽くして失敗しても、次の打席は必ず回ってくる
  • Failure is never fun, but it always provides an opportunity to move on and improve. This chapter had a real stoicism vibe.
• 伝えたい誰かのために
  • About the author’s gratitude to his late father, and the support he feels even from beyond the grave. The takeaway was essentially “Having someone to share your successes with gives you strength to go on.”

I’m not interested in Sword Art nor A Certain Magical Index at all so unfortunately a bunch of the last few chapters were pretty uninteresting. Overall though, I enjoyed my time with this book and I’m glad to have read it.

Audiobooks this week were 育ちざかりの教え子がやけにエモい vol. 1 and 2 (10:00, high focus), 水族館ガール vol. 4 (10:31, low focus), and 狼と香辛料 vol. 1（8時間5分, medium focus but I’ve read it before). The standout this week was easily 育ちざかりの教え子がやけにエモい. The characters are charming and they’ve gone through some nice growth already (fighting, making up, moving beyond insecurities). The later volumes don’t have audiobooks unfortunately but I might read on at some point soon.

Manga this week was 葬送のフリーレン vol. 9 and よつばと vol. 13.

The focus of this volume of フリーレン is マハト. As a demon, he’s incapable of feeling either malice or empathy, but one day he suddenly developed a curiosity about what they could possibly mean. He’s interested in humans in almost a scientific sense, trying to discover more about these alien emotions despite the fact that he’ll probably never be able to understand them. Very interesting character and I’m looking forward to what comes next.

The part where Yotsuba’s grandma went home from her visit was so sad. Poor Yotsuba.

I’ve played a little of Armored Core 6, but I’m not sure if I’m going to continue it in Japanese. The language is pretty tough and I miss a lot during gameplay.