I belatedly finished ハルタ １００号 from December!
I approached the landmark with some fanfare leading up to it, but for some reason (too much other stuff going on?) ended up dawdling on actually reading through it (101 comes out in less than a week). I enjoyed it though! There’s a ~100-200 anniversary special included with 4-page bonus comics and illustrations from various Harta series artists, which serves as a bunch of fun little side episodes sort of like a big pack version of when manga volumes have bonus comics at the end.
There weren’t any 新連載 but there were two endings: 希釈王 was one of my favorite 新連載 from when I started reading for how odd it was, with a unique style that I mostly like a lot, and while ending so soon (and strangely violently) I think leaves it more in “weird scattered interesting thing” territory than something fully cohesive, I’m glad it’s getting a collected volume this month and would recommend it if you want a very unusual take on a world where fantasy races coexist. I definitely hope to see a future series from the author, 須川佳!
(the other ending is FOOLPROOF, but I confess that one wasn’t a favorite of mine – I’m sure it would be someone else’s though and I’m again glad that it’s fully collected this month)
I don’t usually give the 八咫烏杯 rookie contest winners as much attention as they deserve, but I quite liked 蓮守 by 太田シズトキ about a clan protecting lotus flowers that grant immortality.
The main thing though I gotta pitch here though (like I did in the bookwalker freebie thread), is the works of my favorite discovery from Harta, 田沼朝, got collected at last! (I had been waiting for that to happen so I could push them for a long time…)
The shorts collection includes, entirely readable in the preview on bookwalker (!), the first one of theirs I read that I liked so much I translated it to share with friends who couldn’t read Japanese! As well as ones I haven’t read that I look forward to reading once I get the physical edition but I’m waiting to order since I wanna get 希釈王 too, along with 司書正 (which I’d also recommend) as a sentimental batch of new series I liked encountering this way.
And I still really really like いやはや熱海くん’s whole laid-back thing.
The installment of that this issue is a collection of three 4 page comics, and I can’t help but try getting away with pasting one of those 4-pagers here, because I think it’s a really good illustration of the like… very mundane, but warm (and very Kansai) dialogue rhythm and atmosphere of the series? Better than I could hope to describe in words, at least.
I could see it coming across as 100% not interesting, but if it does seem interesting to you, ぜひ, check out the tanko and/or those shorts.
excerpt from いやはや熱海くん
context: 熱海くん is hanging out more frequently at 足立さん’s house, with the latter’s mom and sister also being in the scene.
It’s good to have a release for that “I really like this and want to share it but it isn’t collected yet, and no one’s gonna start reading a whole magazine off a single vague recommendation!” feeling at last!
I do hope that future new series replace it in the future though…