博士の愛した数式 and キッチン are both slow and good. I recommend キッチン if you want to read something shorter – it’s only one of two stories in the book and shouldn’t take too long. It’s written in a stream of consciousness way, so whether you like it or not probably depends on how much you can relate to the protagonist. I personally enjoyed it, but didn’t quite “get” it.
博士の愛した数式 is a bit longer. It’s heartwarming, but in a subdued way, so don’t expect big drama.
Both books are calming in their own way.
Fully agree. Kitchen (the book) also contains a second story which I liked equally well if not better.
殺人出産 on the other hand, is a dystopia and it has its fair share of … moments. So be prepared for a roller-coaster ride 
Calming is good since 魔法少女育成計画 is violent and complicated. But reading something I may not “get” is perhaps not the right choice right now. I’d probably rather read something on the simpler side.
Is 殺人出産 about the same as コンビニ人間 in terms of difficulty?
It’s a pretty easy read in my opinion. I think one could say it’s like コンビニ人間 but without the long-winding philosophical excerpts of a certain you-know-who.
But it’s been a while so everybody please object if you have a different opinion…
Edit: But I can assure you that 博士 is not difficult either. For キッチン I found it sometimes a bit difficult to understand whether something was a real thing or a metaphorical thing, but I read it quite early in my Japanese learning, so ymmv.
It also seems to be on the shorter side, so maybe it makes sense to read next.
The book contains four short stories, of which the titular story was the longest (~120 pages, you can see the schedule here: 殺人出産 🤰🔪 Book Club). The shortest one is only 5 or 10 pages, but really good imho. Other than that, the stories’ topics differ but the dystopian / “holding a mirror to society” theme is consistent throughout.
I think it’s about time. 
It’s slow, and probably a bit harder language wise than キッチン and 殺人出産…? Or that’s just the math that made things harder for me. I’m assuming you’ll have an easier time of that aspect than I did. The language is straightforward enough, even if it feels a bit dated. Or did to me, at the time.
I did agree to read this with someone, but I’m not sure they’ll ever have enough free time at this point… I’m not going to wait forever!
The math terms might be fine, but the baseball terms will kill me!
Isn’t it from the mid-2000s? Weird that the language would feel dated.
You raise an interesting point. I think it’s the setting that made it feel like that for me, with the old house, the old keepsakes etc, the radio - and maybe also just the direct comparison with the rather fewer novels I’d read until then.
It’s possible I’d have a rather different impression were I to read it now after having read some actually old writing.
I just read 銀河鉄道の夜, so I’m sure 博士の愛した数式 will feel modern to me! 
I’ve finished 夜のピクニック (2004) by Riku Onda, a very popular and prolific writer in Japan. It’s funny that this is the longest single book I’ve read in Japanese so far (455 pages), but it only covers a period of 24 hours – one event where high schoolers have to walk 80km as the last event before graduation.
As you might expect, it’s slow but it’s well written. It’s told from the perspective of two students who are connected by something they can’t tell their friends about – but have never actually spoken to each other.
It’s a true coming-of-age story, as you might expect, and all major characters get their share of the spotlight. There isn’t any true melodrama, but lots of smaller conflicts that keep things interesting. The main characters all feel well written – you can’t really just assign them to one specific stereotype as is often the case in YA fiction. I particularly liked how everything came together – the ending was really satisfying.
The only thing I didn’t like was the thing with Anna’s brother – it’s a bit hard to believe that she secretly planned for him to go to Japan and magically solve Tōru/Takako’s problems. Aside from that, the story was very down-to-earth. I’d have loved to read this in my last year of high school. It really is 青春そのものだ.
Next up is 明日は、いずこの空の下, an autobiographic book by Nahoki Uehashi. I really loved the other one, so I’m looking forward to what she has to say this time.
And I am now done with 伯爵と妖精 5 and 6.
The relation of the main characters is becoming surprisingly good drama. It still feels like sexual harassment on the part of エドガー most of the time, though.
I loved how リディア went “screw that noise, I’m going back to Scotland”.
I really wanted to now if she was a changeling, though.
Edit: oh! I unlocked more @valkow spoilers/comments I can read!
Oooh, you’re six volumes in!
If I might ask, what characters do you enjoy? Do you have a book that you liked more than the rest? Favorite 妖精-type so far? Predictions–Prince, romance, fairy stuff, anything?
Excuse my greediness and ignore if you’d like. 
Well, fancy that, I was already writing about some of those points!
I 100% agree with that.
That’s almost my ranking too! I would just invert トムキンス and リディア‘s father (sorry, 教授… but you’re still in the top!) . I do like ゴブラナイ, though, while ポール and the rest of the 紅月 (I think those were the kanji… I keep internally calling them by their katakana name, so I don’t remember) feel pretty bland to me.
Thanks for telling me not to look up anything. 
I think she is a 公爵夫人? Titles are easier than names, haha. (Except if I’m wrong, then titles are as hard as names).
The main antagonist of the past few books is pretty good, especially since he is an actual descendant of the 青騎士伯爵 and has powers, while the エドガー is kinda fake (I guess, though, that eventually he will be able to use the powers of the sword, since it recognizes him as the proper 伯爵).
About アーミン, though, the end of volume 6 is making me worried again. Please don’t be a traitor again.
Volume 6 is my favorite so far. The action was good and we got a fair bit of magical stuff happening too. Also, it really feels like a turning point for リディアand エドガー’s relationship, for better or for worse.
If we are talking about types rather than individuals, I’d say the … field fairies? Those whose queen proposed エドガー and sent the moonstone. I just think they are neat.
Well, the only thing I haven’t mentioned yet is that it could be that リディア, while not being a changeling, still has a lot of 妖精 blood, not only through her mother’s side, but also her father’s. I’m saying that because there a nice hobgoblin at his place, even though リディア was not around until the end of volume 1. I don’t think a 妖精 would stick around without any reason.
Anyway, in that case, it could very well be the case that she is extremely close to being an actual 妖精 without her parents lying about her not being a changeling.
I’m surprised our character list is so similar, that’s awesome. I like ゴブラナイ when he’s not ignoring everything リディア says and/or kidnapping her and dressing her up like a present to エドガー. The rest of the time he is good. And now I know that nice lady’s name: メースフィールド公爵夫人! I like her a lot. I’d say she’s higher up on my list now, except that I like all the other characters more, too, so it’s all just a big clump with リディア at the top.
Yes, it adds an interesting dynamic that ユリシス has two of the things エドガー is lacking as a 伯爵! It gives more opportunities for 妖精 shenanigans as well.
アーミン at the end of book 6 was very surprising to me. I was all caught up in the stuff happening with the dragon and then wait what アーミン what are you doing!
Ahhh, yes, volume 6 is also my favorite of the first 6! I loved the action and ロタ and the stuff with リディア and エドガー figuring some of their stuff out (and then backsliding, and then リディア making the 1000% understandable choice of ditching him, lol). Plus I often think the field-trip-type books are extra fun–getting to go a new place and meet new people and have adventures (like in books 4 and 6, etc).
The field fairies, an unexpected choice with so many big-name types! I like it. I think my favorites in books 1-6 are the selkies, but there are lots of fun 妖精.
Ooh, a true prediction. I can’t really say anything about it but it’s fun to hear what you think. 
It’s fun in general, too, thanks for sharing your thoughts! 
Finished 伯爵と妖精 25 and 26! (mild spoilers->) Things I’ve been waiting for happened!! Also 吸血牛?! The volumes are starting to run out on me. I’m heading into a part I’m excited for, but I think there’s a volume of short stories first. It may be the last one I finish this year as those always take me longer to read.
I finished 青騎士 第３Ａ号!
Three chapters in is enough for some stories to start developing the twist behind the initial premise, which is fun.
Some memorable things:
in ハンバーガーちゃんのまんが道 by… ハンバーガー, this week we learn about page rate, and how it stays the same regardless of the number of panels.
in ディジーレコード ００１４ by 伊田チヨ子 is a series of short stories linked by a frame story of a little robot cleaning house and watching videos, and I liked this issue’s installment about a woman coming to find out that a version of herself from slightly in the future is buying all the good limited-time deals just ahead of her, and goes to confront her about it.
ムシ・コミュニケーター by ムネヘロ is an intriguing series with an odd and interesting vibe. It’s about a girl who can talk to insects. But like… insects aren’t especially attentive communicators, and also they’re short-lived and die constantly. So it’s a mix of the magical and the kind of crummy everyday. Here she’s invited to the 生物部 by an insect enthusiast… but it turns out he’s more the type of enthusiast who takes entomological samples.
恋人よ by 庄野晶
A great short story about a girl returning to Tokyo after many years in the sticks, saying goodbye to another girl who can’t go with her. (because, it turns out, she’s a fox as in like, literally a きつね). It sounds like the author has done several other stories with similar themes in ASUKA.
むすびめ by 長田結花
This isn’t a comic, but 8 pages of themed illustration to close out the issue, which will run each issue going forward. Which I’m really happy to see, since I really felt the lack of anything to close out the magazine and tie it together. And this first set, themed around 「夏のこどもたち」is really nice!
I finished 魔法少女育成計画 book 3 yesterday. This concludes the two part story that I started over the summer. I enjoyed it overall, but as before it was too hard (way too many unknown words) and more gruesome than I’d like. I mean, I get it. The entire premise of the series is “magical girl battle royale”, so of course there will be a lot of violence and death. But one big difference from the first book is that books two and three rotated viewpoint characters. In the first, almost everything was from the perspective of Snow White, so I wasn’t super attached to many of the characters that died. In books two and three there were (I think) six total viewpoint characters among the magical girls in the battle royale. I think this worked well for the book overall, but it did make the deaths more difficult.
Other than that, there were small hints of an overarching plot, but if every book is “~16 new characters get forced into a battle royale where many of them die, with a tiny amount of plot progression at the end” I don’t know if I can keep going with this series for very long. It also doesn’t help that reviews on Amazon get slightly worse after book 6 (until books 14-15 for some reason), so there might be a general consensus that it gets a bit repetitive or otherwise drops in quality. I did enjoy books two and three enough that I will probably give it a little more time, but probably only books 4-6 unless there’s a significant change in style or pacing.
(Book four appears to be short stories about characters from the first three books, but I’m not really sure how I feel about that…)
What? That’s not what I remember. I remember a lot of things from the point of view of err ninja girl. She was the other survivor, I think.
Hmm, to be honest I was unsure as I was writing this, but I skimmed through the first book and since I didn’t see it specifying who the viewpoint character was for each section (which is how it was done in books two and three) I assumed I was correct. Though I vaguely remember a viewpoint by Hardgore Alice when she was killed, which refutes what I thought too. It has been two years since I finished it, so I’m probably misremembering. Do you remember if there were any more viewpoint characters beside Snow White, ninja girl, and Hardgore Alice?
Also, you should blur your last sentence.
