This is the reason why I buy japanese visual novels on sale when possible, there will be a year end sale in December. But unfortunately the super popular ones never are discounted.
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Hello! Nice to meet you 
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Where do you usually buy them? And do you know whether any of them run on Linux maybe? 
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Gotta find something that is just as interesting 
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Wine is your best bet, but natively not a chance 
. Linux might as well not exist for Japanese games. Or mac.
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Come to think of it, I did have reasonably good experience running some Japanese games through WINE way back when I still wasn’t able to read Japanese. But those were games from the Windows XP era.
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Everytime I update my personal log I see this from early 2019. It’s amusing (and amazing, of course) how time and effort change things. I may have written a comment exactly like this before, I don’t remember. 
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You know parts of these sites are rather interesting I don’t know if I am allowed to name sites which include 18+ content on this forum. I think there are only like three sites for digital pc games in japan you can easily google it.
Sometimes I buy visual novels from playstation network japan or nintendo online store japan.
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I just finished Pluto yesterday and damn, that was a ride.
While I knew it was set in アトム universe, I thought it was an original story. Then I reached the end of volume 7 and I realized, wait, I have seen this plot before. And just checking, I found out that it’s a grimdark reboot of the 地上最大のロボット arc. And it just blew my mind.
The original is just a goofy action story with basically no real background.
Pluto, on the other hand. Oh boy. It brings in background and back story. The literal first panel of the Tezuka version only comes in half through the 8th (and last) volume. That’s how much background we are talking about.
Technically, it’s also because of reordering events; instead of telling the reader exactly what is going to happen, the story is constructed as a thriller building up to that reveal.
I’m so happy I didn’t make the connection before. I got to not be spoiled (also, for once, I am glad for having no memory for character names) AND still got to enjoy the nice references. In particular, I was able to really appreciate the redesigns. It’s amazing how the author got to fit the comedic robot designs of Osamu Tezuka into an actually realistic universe; there’s only one exception where I thought the redesign was too close to the original without any functional justification.
Anyway, there’s a lot more specifics I’d like to gives, but I’d rather not write spoilers.
I did cry a few times.
I kinda wonder how many manga I read this year 
Trying to remember, I should have kept track maybe
放浪息子 7 volumes
馬人 6 volumes
ヨコハマ買い出し紀行 2 volumes
Boys run the riot 1 volume
鬼滅の刃 23 volumes
約束のネバーランド 3 volumes
Pluto 8 volumes
I think that’s it? So exactly 50 volumes.
Edit: Oh wait, there was also 7 volumes of ゆるキャン△. I’m in charge of that club how could I forget
So 57 and counting.
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Got some more manga! First haul since March.
Top left: お兄ちゃんはおしまい volume 5 (most recent published)
Top center: おとなになっても volume 4 (volume 5 was sold out)
Top right: とんがり帽子のアトリエ volume 9 (most recent published)
Bottom: ひとりぼっちの〇〇生活 volumes 6-8 (final three volumes of the series)
Top: 星屑テレパス volumes 1-2 (new Kirara series to try out)
Bottom: ブレンド・S volumes 6-7 (most recent published)
ご注文はうさぎですか Complete Blend volumes 1-2 (only ones out so far). This is B5 instead of the usual A5 size and includes a handful of color pages, now matching how it was originally released in the magazine. Each Complete Blend volume contains two of the original volumes. More details and pictures over in the ご注文はうさぎですか thread if you’re interested!
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I just finished 妊娠カレンダー by 小川洋子. (I also wrote a way too detailed 感想 on bookmeter. )
There’s three short stories in the book, which all have a common theme in that they deal with some kind of ‘change’. They’re all very unique though. It was quite different from 博士の愛した数式 in theme and feeling/tone, but I felt like the author’s style really showed. So I guess it’s safe to recommend to anyone who liked 博士!
I basically read through it without reading much else in between except for that one part I still had left of パノラマ島綺譚, an あとがき of a book I finished before and some pages of manga. It feels like a long time since I last read through a book this quickly or consistently. It’s really nice compared to the piecemeal reading habit I developed over the past 2 years of joining all the book clubs:tm:.
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Love it so many cute manga. 
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After an intense but surprisingly fast push through a lot of wrestling magazines (which you can hear plenty more about in a different thread if you really want to), I caught up to my subscription.
Which also means I met all the goals I put at the top of the thread!
I feel like I treated those goals more like called shots than aspirations to strive for, and like @seanblue kinda mentioned about the other day, ultimately I think their biggest impact was a slightly unwelcome added element in the calculus of deciding what to read here at the end of the year.
But I don’t regret any of the reading choices I did make, and I’ve certainly enjoyed sharing what I was reading here instead of just keeping all that to myself, so I think next year probably what I would do is keep sharing but just put my goals as all 0, so instead of harboring ambitions of 200% completion I can be content with an UND% blowout right out of the gate.
I suspect I’ll probably still read some Japanese next year (and the rest of this one)…
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This is UND smart!
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Meanwhile I think I won’t use this thread as a tracker in the next year at all, because I decided I have too many trackers to keep track on
(private tracker for everything I do, bookmeter, natively and this thread - when I finish something, my first thought is “oh no, now i have to update all my trackers”)
And generally I don’t want to set goals for the next year either, because I got close to the
problem, and I also don’t like how frustrated I feel for not completing the goals for this year.
I have some vague plans, but I don’t want to share them publicly and I want to let them be fluid.
I plan to do end-of-the-year summaries, though. EDIT: Or I don’t.
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Did you (or anyone else here) ever read this? The ebook is 45% off on Amazon right now, but I haven’t decided yet whether or not to buy it.
I only read the manga so far, the novel is still a bit too difficult for me. The manga is one of my all time favorite manga (and I’ve read more than 1000 different manga series xD).
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So happy. My time spent reading has doubled since I gave up on reading a novel and switched to reading manga. Visuals help a lot
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I have both the novel and the manga on my list, but since the novel is the original version I’m more inclined to read that. That said, I already own too many books, so if I bought it I don’t know when I’d read it.
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I would be curious as well! I like the cover illustration, but somehow the title is very ominous so not sure…
The plot summary on Wiki looks promising, though.
I finished Edogawa’s 天空の魔人 today:
Plot overall very interesting and quite intense, but unfortunately the mystery reveal comes way too quickly and cheaply without much build-up and foreshadowing. I think the book would’ve really profited if it had been longer and the main plot line more spread out. However, bearing in mind the target audience, I think we’re good here . The ending is satisfying nonetheless.
Onto Ｄ坂の殺人事件 per @rodan 's recommendation!
Update:
A little bit overwhelmed by the onslaught of new vocab and the writing feels kind of old compared to 天空の魔人 from 1950s, but I like it. Somehow feels very noir. Might be also the music I’m listening to .
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