Read “Hum” today, and I think it’s unsettling in how it depicts things we are dealing with today only in a more heightened way. Though, because of that, it also didn’t need to be speculative fiction at all, except for the Hums. Anyway, I thought it was good, but it lost me a little at the end.

Big things happening in this one. I can’t believe I didn’t really like this series when I started it, but now that I have a better handle on Ema, I really like “Pink Candy Kiss” A LOT.

And the last new series for now: “The Delinquent and the Transfer Student” was more silly than I expected but very cute. It’s very loud though, lots of yelling and excitement and different fonts, which I find stressful to read, but since it’s only three volumes, I want to continue reading anyway.

“That’s Not Love” was pretty good and also pretty heavy to be honest. I like that it shows that you carry trauma even as you grow older into a place where you are supposed to have everything figured out and are expected to just quietly accept your pain.

“Secondhand Sisters” has a pretty messy setup, but I’m here for the drama? I definitely felt rage for Jun with what we have seen Ran + husband doing. However, I think there is going to be enough twists that no one is going to come out clean. Definitely want to continue and see how this all unravels.

Ok so, this one, I have mixed feelings about. The first part is very I hacked this, then I hacked that, so a bit boring, but the second part was really fun and I liked that the characters from the first book were back. The next one is the full length novel, which I’m really looking forward to!

I just finished “Please Look After Mother” and I think it’s a good book, a few very observant about scenes about the relationship between mothers and children and what I guess you could call the inherent selfishness and ignorance of being someone’s child.

The reveal at the end of this volume is honestly yaw dropping. The series is seriously so good and has so many twist and turns it’s so fun to read. I really love it!

I’ve been really exited to read “Void: No. Nine” and I was totally right to be. I really enjoyed it. It has an intriguing story and world, interesting and diverse characters and obviously the art is great. I like the blue team, they are nice and chill. But yeah, definitely going to continue this.

Read vol 1 of “Record Journey” today. Basically, it’s short stories about record shops and people who love music, which I love. The first story was a little meh but then the next few got progressively better, so if it keeps going that way, it might get really good? I think I’ll pick up vol 2 to see.

Ok, “The Keeper” is definitely the best one out of the three novels. They all have a great atmosphere and very vivid description of land/people, but this one also has this slow, creeping sense of danger and unsettling feeling of a place getting its fangs into you despite yourself.

Ok, just finished “Soul Mate” and now I’m miserable. Every time I thought they were over a bad things, some new bad thing happens. The story has light moments, too, sure, but they don’t keep and the ending is bittersweet, as well. So it was good, but also kind of depressing.

I think this is probably going to be my weekend. I read about three chapters of “The Keeper” but I had to keep putting it down because of life things, so I really want to give it a proper go now. I also watched three episodes of “Soul Mate” and liked it, so I want to continue there, too.

Watched S2 of “Devil May Cry” and it was fun. The story was pretty linear, so it was more like a longer movie than a series. I (unsurprisingly) liked Virgil a lot. The soundtrack was great again, too. Also nostalgic since, like in S1, I knew most of the songs. Millenial rock, you could call it.

On the back of “pink”, there is this tagline 'love & capitalism' and it encapsulates the story pretty well. This whole thing about 'If I have/am this, I’ll be happy' and also the commodification of self. Apparently it was published in '89 and that comes across in the whole vibe of the story, too.

Started watching “My Royal Nemesis” and it is so funny! I haven’t watched anything that made me laugh like this in a while. I usually don’t really gravitate toward comedy much, but I like the main trope (person from the past coming to the present) in this, so I gave it a go and it was so worth it!

Idk,“Roar” is so dramatic, like soap opera kind of craziness. It’s so fun. But I really wonder what’s behind everything because it really has to be something big with the lengths the characters go to.

I honestly did not think vol 2 of “Divine Incursions” would be this good, but I really liked it. This one is basically the backstory of vol 1 and ties up some of the mysteries. I think the gods were more dangerous and the overall stakes felt higher. And I liked the new characters, too.

I finished “Monarch” just now, and was it good? Probably not. Was it fun? Definitely! I think it suffers most from the 'kids' making stupid decisions to further the story, which would usually annoy me, but then there is Godzilla, you know? I do like the 1950s characters/story, though.

Read the first volume of “A Starlit Darkness” and so far, it’s pretty interesting. It’s set in 1920s literary circles and the atmosphere of it is pretty good. The story is a bit darker and has a of a novel-like quality, which is always really cool.

Took a day more than I thought, but I finished “Ran and the Gray World”. I thought the world was pretty charming/whimsical with the magic and the people. I also kind of liked 'analyzing' Ran, like how she wanted to be a grown up so badly but just the size of your body doesn’t make you an adult.

Finished this one, but I had a hard time getting into it (wholly my fault) and then everything just felt so vague, especially the backstories. It felt like it was set up to be a much longer book but then somewhere along the way the story lost steam and was just wrapped up quickly :(

Weekend plans: 📕 Ran and the Grey World 📖 Lost Ark Dreaming 📺 Monarch

Finally, finally, read “BL Metamorphosis” and it was a very wholesome story about bonding over shared interests despite having an age gap or being an unlikely pair. There was a lot of kindness in this story and I think it’s not always what fandom is, but really should be, so I enjoyed it very much.

I read “Welcome Back, Alice” today, and I don’t really know how to express my thoughts about it. I have a lot of thoughts, but they are kind of murky in a 'Are the bad parts really bad and the good parts really good?’ kind of way. I guess this is one of those stories you have to read for yourself.

I read vol 1+2 of “Wandervogel” yesterday and the story is kind of all over the place, but I still kind of liked it? I think it if had more space to unfold or if it could have been more streamlined, then it could have been really, really good, because it had a lot of potential and interesting ideas.

I’ve been watching “Silo” the last few days and it’s really good. The world building is very interesting and the story has a good balance between reveals and adding new mysteries. I liked ep1 of S2 a lot. It was just no talking and Juliette rigging up stuff. I love capable characters like that.

That being said, I’m currently really drastic about dropping manga. I had 105 ongoing series, and now I’ve pruned it down to 80. Some of it was BL on eternal hiatus and some were series that, at some point, lost their spark for me (e.g. “The Fragrant Flower Blooms with Dignity”).

Also read 10 volumes of “Daemons of the Shadow Realm”, then decided to drop it. There is absolutely nothing wrong with it (good story, likable characters, interesting world building), but I just didn’t really connect with it and don’t feel the need to know what’s going to happen next.

So, these are all the manga I read since I posted the last time. I think my favorite out of all of them was “Land”. I don’t know, it’s just really interesting and I like the concept of the Land and the Beyond. I really want to know how everything came to be and why.

Kamisama Kiss! 🦊🌸

Finally watched season 2 of “Bloodhounds” and it was really good! I think I might like this one more than season 1? In S1, the story wasn’t that interesting and a lot hinged on the chemistry between the leads, but this one had a good story plus the chemistry. They definitely upped the game in S2.

I’ve been reading “Lovesick Ellie” over the last week and it was pretty fun and cute. I liked that Ellie caught Ohmi on the back foot a lot and also when he was leaning into her nonsense and they both ended up flustered. I would have loved to read more about Kaname though, I liked him a lot.

The ending of this book pissed me off a lot. For 240 pages we think about why the villains should not do the thing and then the mc does the almost same thing and it‘s okay because he is the good guy and means well? Even a greater good doesn’t give you the right to mess with people like that.

Finished the fourth Saye novel just now and, as always, really liked it. It was cool that they finally addressed their different situation and what they think their futures might be. Unrealistically for their age, they have great communication in their relationship, but who cares, I love them.

What I read this week: ✅ WIND BREAKER 23 ✅ Shimazaki in the Land of Peace 8 ✅ Choujin X 13 Weekend tbr: 🌱 Kamisama Kiss 6 🌱 Phantom Busters 3 🌱 Spacewalking with you 3 I’m also reading volume 4 of Saye and I really want to start season two of “Bloodhounds” soon.

I watched this the last two days and I wouldn’t say it was the best thing ever but it was entertaining and easy to watch. It went into a different direction from what I expected, which was good. I also think this might be a good show for people who like to dig deep into characters+their motivations.

Vol. 4 is the last one of “Gene Bride” and overall, I think it has a lot of important things to say, which I appreciate, however storytelling-wise it could be a bit clunky, like the individual parts never quite gelled. Still, it was a good read, it just maybe could have used some more time.

This one I finished yesterday and it really had me emotionally involved. It’s the kind of book where you feel the oppressiveness, stress and panic along with the characters. The story may be familiar, but I think that’s because we are too used to these horrible things happening to women+children :\

I watched the first episode of these anime and most of them I need one or two more episodes to know if I want to keep going. I already know I won’t keep watching “Kusunoki's Garden of Gods” because of the low production quality and the mc’s airhead personality.

Did not end up reading the book I planned, but “Translation State” by Ann Leckie and what a great choice that was. I usually love Ann Leckie’s books anyway and this one is a great exploration of identity and bodily autonomy, but in space. I couldn’t put it down and loved every second of it!

Went to the movies for the first time in forever and watched “Project Hail Mary”. It was definitely worth it and a fun movie, though I sometimes had my issues with the mc, because I don’t like the unserious, he’s an idiot but he’s a genius! type. But I still enjoyed the movie.

I think I read this book mainly to compare notes, since it is interesting to read about part of your own lived history. Overall, I found it a very readable and a good account of what the media presented millennial women with as the grew up.

I’m having so much fun with reading books at the moment, I’m considering finishing my book tbr before I start any new manga. I’m reading “Girl on Girl” right now and then I guess I might read “The Keeper”, which just came out.

This book was kind of a disappointment. The story was unimaginative but overall okay, but I just could not get over Montgomery (35) thirsting after Carlota (20), whom he met when she was 14. He saw her grow up, so that’s a big no from me.

Uh, ok, I didn’t expect season 2 of “Gyeongseong Creature” to be so much better than season 1?? I started yesterday and finished today. Maybe the fewer and shorter episodes made the storytelling more concise? At any rate, it was really good and now I want that season 3, even if it’s unlikely.

Because I liked “Smoke Blue…”, I read this one by the same mangaka. It’s based on a real story, so I don’t really feel equipped to have an opinion, but some stuff had me literally going '???' because I didn’t understand the characters. It was fine, really, just my personality doesn’t mesh with it.

Finished “Gyeongseong Creature” S1 and it was fine, but I never really felt really excited or desperate to know how the story continues, I can remember maybe two scenes where I was feeling some kind of suspense, but apart from that, the story just ambled along. Still going to watch S2 now, though.

I read up to vol 7 now and my first impression did not deceive me, because “Smoke Blue no Ame Nochi Hare” is so, so good! I like the relatability of the situations, like with the elderly parents, juggling responsibilities, etc. These are adult characters with adult worries and that’s such a treat.

I read volume one of both of these and I decided not to continue with either series. They aren’t bad at all, but I’m just not feeling them right now. Probably the timing is just not right. I actually thought “Cheeky Brat” was fun, but I don’t think it’s what I want to read right now.