I also enjoyed the first 3 books the most! From book 1 I didn’t care about any of the non-spider parts, and as those got more important I moved to disliking them. I’m not sure the spider parts are going in a direction I’ll enjoy either. I haven’t been able to get myself to read past volume 5, so if you do and think they’re worth the time, let me know! I still find the main character’s POV funny and I like a lot of the spider-focused action and strategy.
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There needs to be a word for this in English! I have this. No one understands me when I say that I read too much.
I’m at least trying to transfer my 活字中毒 over to Japanese books, so that I can leverage it to get better at reading Japanese.
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For those who are curious how Nahoko Uehashi’s three big series compare in volume:
獣の奏者 Series Total:
4 books (文庫本)
1920 pages (480 average)
~716.000 characters
Not included: 1 spin-off book
守り人 Series Total:
10 books (軽装版)
3538 pages (354 average)
~1.500.000 characters
Not included: 3 spin-off books
鹿の王 Series Total:
4 books (文庫本)
1295 pages (324 average)
~507.000 characters
Not included: 1 spin-off book
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I actually used to have a solid steel book mark with this laser engraved in it. My dad made it for me since he just happens to have access to a multi million dollar laser at work that will laser engraved any image you upload…
…I engraved a lot of anime characters
EDIT: found the pic
And since I’m sure everyone is more interested in the anime characters. First one is Akame in glass and second one is pain in wood. In the Akame reflection you can also see one of my other yojijukugos in wood
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Done with 鹿の王 Vol. 1!
Of course it ends with a cliffhanger, but I’m used to that from Uehashi’s books already. (To be fair. this is is only the first half of the hardcover version).
I particularly loved the last third of the book: The part about the time Van spent in the mountains and how close he got to the small tribe living there. There was no action going on at all, but I always love these small moments of transquility and that focus on daily life and character development the most in Uehashi’s books. Reminded me a lot of Erin.
I also like the focus on deers/wolves, though they aren’t as exciting as the 闘蛇 and 王獣 in Erin – and by that I don’t mean the creatures themselves, but concepts like the 音無し笛, the breeding and how they were tied into the lore.
In 鹿の王 I’m most excited about what’s behind the disease/epidemic – and especially Van’s role – and Yuna’s growth that I hope will be a theme of the other books.
As in Erin I don’t care so much about the politics. Uehashi does present us a multifaceted world with a lot of smart ideas and well-presented conflicts, but I personally hope this won’t take the center stage. I’m also bad with katakana fantasy names, so the names of all the places and side characters already start to confuse me.
I’m planning read vol. 2 soon, but will probably read 1-2 other books before.
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I have this problem with regular names 
I started making cheatsheets when it seems like there’s going to be a lot of characters, this is a snippet of my sheet for my current reading (おやすみ、夢なき子):
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I actually started to add names to Anki as a separate deck with info about the person’s profession, etc. since some of the readings are a kittle hard to get used to initially 
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I actually like where this going, so I guess we have diverging opinion here. 
I’m halfway through volume 6 right now (I decided to give up on 伯爵と妖精 for now and returned the books; they were already overdue), and it’s 100% in the past timeline instead of alternating with the present. Looking at the table of contents, it’s going to be like that until the end of this volume.
Edit: That being said, I also do hate the fan service in the character design.
Also, the various problems with the writing style made me wonder if there’s a way to have a novel adaptation of LN.
That is, on top of the usual adaptation LN->manga->anime, have LN-> actual novel with a real editor.
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Nice, I’m glad to hear it! Maybe I’ll give 6 a try again sooner rather than later.
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Huuuu, volume 7 wasn’t that great, actually.
It’s basically just one very long battle, with very little happening plot-wise.
There some important reveals, but it’s done so offhandedly that it fell flat as far as I am concerned.
I’m also not a fan of the last development (白 reaching godhood), I guess.
Well, let’s see volume 8… gah more characters.
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I’ve started reading 星やどりの声. I only wanted to read the beginning, but couldn’t stop and read 80 pages yesterday night.
It’s a book about a family – 6 chapters from the perspective of the children (3 boys, 3 girls) from age 11 to 26. I’ve only read the first 1.5 chapters, but love it already. Each perspective seems to be very different because the characters have different personalities and are in different stages of their life. It’s neither overly idealized nor overly dramatic – but the mundane nature of the story doesn’t mean it’s not exciting. The thoughts and struggles of each of the children feel very real. Can’t wait to read more.
I’ve also started reading the first Kiki spin-off book, キキに出会った人びと 魔女の宅急便特別編, the other day. I’ll probably read it very slowly as my “side book”. It’s basically a bunch of side stories about the people Kiki met during the books.
Edit: Whoa, apparently a third spin-off novel was released just the other day! And it’s actually a book-in-a-book – a story the character Keke (prominently appearing in book 3 and 6) wrote. Can’t wait to read that.
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I’m about half way done with おやすみ、夢なき子 and I went to look for a cover to insert into the post like KazeTachinu and found out there is a way better cover than the one mine has, so here, enjoy:
Really pumps up the creepy vibes, mine is quite boring in comparison.
Overall loving this book - it’s about the remains of a girl (Akiko) who went missing 28 years prior being found and the past being stirred up. Oh, and a cop goes on the run with a woman who killed her father which in ways yet unexplained are likely tied to Akiko’s murder almost 3 decades before.
As with 夜警 (the other 赤川 book I’ve read) everyone is hooking up, or attempting to. There is murder and attempted murder. The chapters are short and it’s a page turner - very much not a slow, thoughtful story and close to being pulp fiction.
Cannot recommend it highly enough.
Thinking I might dive into ロクヨン after this and then the second volume of すべての神様の十月 can be my ‘light’ reading on days I don’t have the energy for something so heavy. Alternating between this current book and すべて isn’t working because おやすみ is both easy to read and super engaging so I never want to put it down.
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I read the Summer 2021 issue of テラン!
It’s the first issue of the all-読切 magazine started to fill Harta’s off months, January and July. (So this one I read is from July, and there was a second issue released less than a week ago).
I wondered why it was called that before reading, but they print this explainer a bunch of times, and I think it’s a cool name!
And inside it’s pretty much Harta, but every story is self-contained. Which is a cool thing!
I did find that I preferred the pacing of having one-offs alongside chapter installments and debuts, etc. like in the main magazine - this was a slower to read just because I knew each story I had to mentally start completely from scratch. And I wouldn’t say I was head over heels for any one particular story more than the others. But they’re all very interesting and good! And it’s cool to have a completely standalone version of Harta in case someone wants a sense of broadly what kinds of stories might be in it while still being reticent to jump in the middle of a bunch of series.
A few memorable ones (hard to pick these with this one):
- 全裸の夢と叶えるライン by 樫木祐人
One of the coolest things for me was seeing authors of series in Harta doing a completely different story here. This one’s by the author of ハクメイとミコチ and it’s about a drunken conversation leading to a quest to fulfill a strange dream.
- 黄金の秋 by かわもと まい
Another example - the author of the good-hearted cobbler manga, アンリの靴, has this tragic war story.
- くちべにがしたい by 三卜和貴
A cute story about trying to try makeup when you’re not really supposed to.
- 夜鷹心中 by 飴石
A tricky-to-read period piece about an executioner and a prostitute.
- はなぶさ by 綿野マイコ
A period piece about a girl taking the place of her brother following his accidental death. It has an interesting rhythm to it - like the paneling is more ambitious than usual, I guess is what I mean.
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I finished volume 9 yesterday (or technically early this morning since it was just after midnight) and started volume 10.
I absolutely loved volume 9. There’s a major plot twist in there that I didn’t see coming (although there were hints) and it solved problems I had with previous volumes, especially volume 4.
I honestly found volumes 7 and 8 pretty boring, so I was just about to give up on the series.
I guess the trend since volume 5 (staying in the past timeline) will continue until we catch up with the events from シュン’s perspective in volume 4. That and I guess will also have some of the stuff that happened in the earlier volumes from the point of view of 白…
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It’s like you’re asking to be caught up on another series and stuck waiting again.
Hope you have more series lined up. 
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Rejoice! I have in fact improved my Japanese enough in the past two years that my brain doesn’t melt when reading this manga! 
So far I’ve only read five chapters, but it hasn’t really been that hard. Even the archaic language from the ancestor character just required learning a few new pronouns.
And on that note, this difficulty rating on Natively is way overstated. It’s certainly more difficult than many of the other Manga Time Kirara series I’ve read, but not to the degree the site claims. For reference, most of those manga are in the 25-30 range, with うらら迷路帖 being the slight outlier at 32. And then まちカドまぞく comes in at 39. Assuming the difficulty of the manga is consistent throughout, it should probably have about the same difficulty score as うらら迷路帖. Even though I dropped that series, I’m thinking about reading the third volume next so I can directly compare their difficulties.
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That’s the operative word here. I have no plan.
There are like 16 volumes published, so I expect to be sad in a week or so.
But in any case, I still have 伯爵と妖精, the next volume of 本好き which comes out in 2.5 months, and then maybe I could read actual literature. Who knows.
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I finished volume 10 and
Wait. No. Wait.
The main character turns into Darth Vader absolutely evil and overpowered. That was fun to read, but I was wondering how she can remain the main character after that.
Well, she doesn’t
. Based on the table of contents, volume 11 is entirely from the point of view of a different character, on the side of Good™.
Pff.
Tried to read a bit, but I really don’t care about that character either… Time for a look ahead at volume 12
Well, we aren’t really back to her until volume 13… I guess I can survive 2 volumes.
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I’m at the 50 % mark for both of the books I’m reading now, so I’ll probably have finished 4 books (+ one in English) by the end of the month.
I’ve also read とつくにの少女 #8-11 and ヨコハマ買い出し紀行 #1 last week.
とつくにの少女 is easily one of the most beautiful and distinctive manga I know. I absolutely adore the art and love the atmosphere. Shiva and 先生 are really cute together and the central mystery that was quite interesting – as long as it was looming in the background. As the story got more lore-focused and wordy in the last 4 volumes, I had a hard time following it as it got really complicated fast. I also simply didn’t care for that part as much as for the character moments. Luckily the last chapter was really good again and I still love this series overall.
The font size is smaller than in your typical manga releases, though, and I felt like this definitely made it more tiring to read the wordier bits. Maybe should’ve chosen the digital version. I’m looking forward to the anime release in March which looks absolutely gorgeous as in – more beautiful than any animated work I’ve seen in a while.
In February I want to continue to work on my backlog. I’m planning to read 鹿の王２ (one book a month is probably a good rhythm) and maybe コーヒーが冷めないうちに. But I may also focus more on manga. We’ll see.
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What kind of manga do you tend to read? What are some of your favorite series?
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