[2025] 多読/extensive reading challenge

I read an issue of ハルタ magazine - specifically volume 80 from December 2020 (because it’s the first one with an uncollected chapter of ドンジョン飯 in it), and I had a really nice time!

I think Harta is a treasure trove for anyone interested in interesting manga aimed at adults (in terms of pacing and difficulty, not explicitness). Especially if you’ve any interest in things like calm slice of life, special interests and hobbies, historical fiction, fantasy, light yuri, gourmet, fashion, etc. They seem to tend to have a mixture of those kinds of elements.
It’s also about 1000 pages (comes out monthly), so there’s a lot in here.

Since this thread is full of a bunch of literary rubberneckers, I thought I’d give my impressions on every comic in the issue in case any of them pique your interest.
It’s just one chapter of each, and this is my first time reading almost all of them, so they aren’t deep impressions! But I’ll throw in pictures to convey the vibe a little.

What's in this issue of ハルタ

先生、今月どうですか chapter 4 by 高江洲弥
I remember this one as being about a young woman who’s a new landlord of an apartment building for some reason, and she’s gotta interact with her unusual tenants and do favors and stuff to keep everybody happy. But with a stranger and more laid-back than that sounds like. It looks pretty and has a fashion-y charm.

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ホテル・メッツァペウラへようこそ chapter 3 by 福田星良
Emotions and mystique as a young man with a mysterious past works in an upscale hotel in Scandinavia. Didn’t leave a giant impression on me, but it seems like a slowburn so I’d be curious to see where it goes!
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ふるラン chapter 8 by 石田裕揮
It’s a manga about running and then taking baths!
If you want to read about two women who run together and take baths together, read this, otherwise do not read this, I think it’s pretty straightforward.
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生き残った6人によると chapter 5 by Kazune Yamamoto (switching to romanization for the author names because speed)
This one is 100% Terrace House + Dawn of the Dead. A gender-balanced group of young people get stuck in a mall during a zombie apocalypse. Cute premise!
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瑠璃の宝石 chapter 9 by Keiichirou Shibuya
It’s a geology manga!
You know how some manga are just like, a slightly fictionalized excuse to talk about the author’s special interest? This is that, for geology! I don’t especially care about geology, but I enjoy the format and accrued some rock facts and vocabulary (not just in Japanese…)
This kind of manga always makes me a little sad the mainstream American comics industry got so intensely glued to superheroes.
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百徳の幸 by Yusei Ito
This is a one-shot!
It’s fine! It’s about a sprite who wants to reward a good dude but he doesn’t seem to want anything.
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帝都影物語 chapter 3 by Fumika Higa
A period piece about a body double!
It’s a lot more about wistful emotions and homesickness than epic tragedy, but it still reminded me of Kagemusha anyway because of the subject matter. I’d be happy to read more!
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ドンジョン飯 chapter 70 by Ryoko Kui
This is my favorite manga! It’s great! Give it a shot!
(don’t start here though it’s uh, pretty heavily in the thick of it)
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峠鬼 chapter 15 by Kenji Tsurubuchi
This one was intriguing fantasy adventure, but it was difficult for me to read because this was an obviously plot-heavy episode (it’s a big villain monologue mainly, about stuff I don’t understand jumping in at the middle like this), and also it’s heavily steeped in (I think) folklore. I’d be curious to see what it’s like from the beginning sometime.
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山を渡る chapter 19 by Tetsuo Utsugi
This one seems like Laid Back Camp, but for mountain climbing. Also less of an emphasis on the relaxation and more on the social. Seemed like a nice time.
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紙一重りんちゃん chapter 15 by Lychee Nagasaki
I found this one quite odd. It’s an unusual yonkoma, and I couldn’t really tell what the premise was from this chapter alone.
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真柴姉弟は顔が固い chapter 4 by Mariko Kikuchi
This one was a really big stand out to me!
The art style’s really crisp, and the content heartfelt and nice, about a girl trying to figure out how to get another girl (who has a crush on her) to open up. I’ll have to look more into it after this!
I’m gonna paste two pics since I can’t pick.
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金曜日はアトリエで chapter 14 by Sakura Hamada
This one was fine - guy has a crush on this girl he knows, and they walk around town.
I actually didn’t notice until now, but the one-sentence summary/slogan for the series says one of them is an artist and one of them is a nude model. Huh! I should probably read those more closely next time… I did not infer that context whatsoever from the chapter, and wondered how they knew each other.
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クプルムの花嫁 chapter 7 by namo
This one seemed pretty cute! It’s about a young couple who are engaged and one of them is a metalworker.
I feel like that sentence explains nothing but also it explains everything about the chapter.
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アンリの靴 chapter 8 by Mai Kawamoto
Cobbler manga! It’s a manga about cobbling! You’re damn right I don’t know anything at all about cobbling but would happily watch manga characters feel a bunch of emotions about it.
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二コラのおゆるり魔界紀行 chapter 23 by Asaya Miyanaga
I’ve read the first chapter of this before in English, and enjoyed it! It’s got a very different vibe from most manga, and it’s a cute one. Apparently this is the penultimate chapter! I’ll have to catch up some time. Looks like it’s built to a nice ending.
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ことり文書 chapter 2 by Miki Amano
Manga about a clumsy maid! Does a nice job of endearing you to the protagonist and the lady she serves.


落し物日和 by Misaki Araki
Very short but pretty nice one-shot about bad luck causing opportunities to reconnect.
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煙と蜜 chapter 21 by Hiroko Nagakura
Period piece (… Taisho maybe?) where a young girl has a crush on a grown man and has to pick an outfit to go on a trip with him in. I don’t know yet how to read that relationship, but there’s nothing intensely untoward here and the guy has a… villain vibe to his character design, I’d say. So I’d imagine things get complicated or contrary to expectations. Or I could be misinterpreting things (reading a random chapter is weird like that).
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ハクメイとミコチ chapter 79 by Takuto Kashiki
This is one I’ve read (the first volume of) in English!
And I’ve since bought the series in Japanese because it seems really really good! As I recall, it’s basically about this lesbian couple (or at least permanent housemates) who are extremely tiny and live out in the woods and do odd jobs for other extremely tiny wood denizens. It’s very peaceful and builds a wonderful little world.
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夜の名前を呼んで chapter 4 by Tama Mitsuboshi
I had kinda mixed feelings about this one. The girl at the center of it is endearing (and likes books), but I wasn’t sold on the dynamic otherwise and it feels a little um… Witch Hat Atelier-y but not as gorgeous (which is unfair). The hook at the end though was interesting (and probably comes up in earlier chapters…)


アビスアジュールの罪人 chapter 3 by Akihito Tomi
Mermaids! Doing mermaid stuff!
A really nice fantasy, almost sci-fi-ish atmosphere here.
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ミギとダリ chapter 35 by Nami Sano
I wasn’t that into this one, but to be fair my enjoyment with series I didn’t know already was often inversely proportional to the chapter count, which makes sense! It’s about two twins, and from what I gather it’s sort of a Hanna type of situation - escape from some kind of lab, mysterious telekinetic powers. Something along those lines.
I actually didn’t put together why they’re named that until just now. Sheesh!


極東事変 chapter 13 by Aguri Ohue
So this one… I would have to read more and probably study more history to really evaluate. It’s about Japanese patriots after the war who have been purged from public office and instigate the masses against the American occupied forces.
Which is obviously a very fraught subject! I don’t want to knee-jerk react to it in one direction or another, and for what it’s worth, it seems like the book’s take isn’t kneejerk either. I’d be curious to see where it’s going.
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九国のジュウシ chapter by Kouhei Nishi
This was actually another standout for me.
It’s got a very odd vibe that’s hard to put my finger on, with art that sometimes reminds me of those great SNK fighting game box covers. It’s a historical drama, I think maybe with real characters, not fictional ones (I was reading these quickly), but amped up with a mix of zany and violent that reminds me of Golden Kamuy or maybe a Vinland Saga. A lot of decapitations. Very curious about this one.
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昴とスーさん chapter 27 by Natsuko Takahashi
It’s a baseball manga* AND it’s a yuri manga!*
Also I think it might be a time loop manga???*
I did not always do a very good job of gathering the basic premise of a long-running manga before trying to vaguely gather it from context.
* Editor’s note: I’m probably wrong about all three parts of this.
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ヴラド・ドラクラ chapter 23 by Akiyo Ohkubo
Honestly, expecting Dracula, I was kinda underwhelmed. I didn’t follow it very well, but it’s likely just that it’s a slower burn than can come across great in random single chapter format.


不思議の国のバード chapter 7 (?) by Taiga Sassa
This is one I didn’t read very carefully because I think I bought these volumes sight-unseen in a sale already! It looked interesting!
I still think it looks interesting.
Similar to A Bride’s Story, it seems like, in that it’s largely about observing local customs, just in this case it’s period (… Edo? Meiji? Taisho?) Japan


冥府が来た! last chapter by Misaki Koshitani
At first I wasn’t into this but it grew on me… it’s about befriending the devil. I’m very not clear how many chapters there were to this, since it just says this is the last one. So I wasn’t sure how closely to read.
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はなやっこ chapter 27 by Ayumi Hara
Fun yonkoma! Three women in bit of a love triangle run a flower shop. The art’s nice too!


東京城址女子高生 chapter by Kanae Yamada
This one is like Laid Back Camp, but instead of camping, it’s a “visiting castle ruins” club!
My mom looooooves (European) castle ruins, and growing up she took us to them constantly, so there’s something very nostalgic to me about this premise. It seems like you would need to take your time with it and really appreciate the places they’re visiting and history they’re mentioning to get anything out of it though, and reading one chapter in the middle of a bunch of others over an afternoon, much like as a kid who’s tired of hiking and just wants to go home (sorry Mom), isn’t the ideal setting.
This is one I’ll have to check out and see what I think in volumes. It might be some fun support for studying Japanese history (it seems like it would be incomprehensible if you don’t know any history).
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碧いホルスの瞳 chapter 38 by Chie Inudoh
This seemed too high of a chapter number for me to follow what was going on, especially this deep into the magazine. But I’m baseline definitely interested in reading a manga set in Ancient Egypt, and I notice now the tagline is 男装の女王の物語, which sounds intriguing.


やさしい異星人 by Reika Aihama
One shot about a cute alien on Earth being bullied by humans at work.
As you might imagine, things do not work out for the bullies in the end…
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西部高校あおぞら弓道部t final chapter by Sawako Arashida
Archery manga! This is the final chapter so I only barely skimmed it, figuring I would not have the archery knowledge to appreciate the intricacies presumably tied artfully to the character’s story arcs.


音嫁語り chapter 69 by Kaoru Mori
I actually skipped this because I’ve read a bunch of Bride’s Story volumes in English and really enjoyed them, so I want to catch up in a more linear way sometime! It’s a really lovely and evocative series though, about daily life in historical central Asia.
P.S. apparently this and some other series are moving to a new spinoff magazine, 青騎士. I hope that ends up on bookwalker!


北北西に雲と往け chapter 47 by Aki Irie
To be honest this was past the point where I’d probably been reading too much manga for the day so this one made the least strong impact on me, as it looked like a lot of talking between characters I don’t know.
That said, the art looks really nice and the slogan is about a 17-year old detective living in Northern Europe? I’m curious about that!
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ヤギと羊の王冠 chapter 5 by Tetsuya Nakamura
Beer brewing manga! Express your emotions through the power of German beer styles!!
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紅椿 chapter 17 by Hirona Takahashi
I didn’t really know what to make of this one! It was the most overtly risque, with a lot of the chapter involving tickling a voluptuous woman. Also a dog-girl was in the background? I think it’s about modeling.
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… And that’s it!!
The back had some nice illustrations, reader comments, previews, contests, etc. and an interesting essay about proto-“otaku” culture (before it was called that) around the start of Gundam, comiket, etc.

Whew, that was… more than it was in my head!

Going in I was very unsure if I would be able to handle jumping into things in the middle, since I’m usually all about starting at the beginning. But it turns out I was able to let go of that pretty easily.
Until recently (until I joined this thread actually), I read a lot of manga and comics checked out from the library in English - just anything that looked even mildly interesting. But I stopped because I realized I was reading a bunch of manga in English every weekend to turn them in when I was much more excited to read manga in Japanese.
This filled that loss of a broad swathe quite nicely! And it’s already made me look into sampling other periodicals…

P.S. I counted it as a manga volume in the chart.

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