Issue #85
Happy days, I finally finished issue 85!!! It partly took me so long because I traveled a lot in July.
I found it kind of annoying/disconcerting that I couldn’t tell from the table of contents how many new series and yomikiri there were. I like to check on that when I’m starting to read an issue. But it seems like they (at least partially) fix that going forward.
新連載 / Series Debuts
希釈王 by 須川 佳 (すがわ けい)
A bit frustrating and not sure this is actually a language problem, might just be a confusing one. The whole first three quarters I thought the main character was an elementary school child (she’s got the little hat, and when talking on the phone she asked if the other character was still at work, and said お母さん頑張って) only to discover near the end that she’s the mother?? Also there’s a multi-page prelude with very little indication that any of it has anything to do with the actual story. And there’s just oddly confusing things thrown in.
I guess I wouldn’t be upset about all that if I didn’t care about the story. It occasionally does a good job showing what it feels like to be discriminated against and/or simply not accounted for. And the world is weird and interesting. I like the theme, but it feels really awkwardly done.
(skipped) インク色の欲を吐く by 梅ノ木 びの
The themes of this one don’t appeal to me at all.
読切 / Shorts
にせ猫の探しかた by 池袋 万里 (いけぶくろ まり)
It was okay. Still no idea what the title page is supposed to represent …
光の小指 by 竹本 明梨 (たけもと あかり)
So happy I read this one! I didn’t love the art (at all), but read my requisite couple pages anyway, and the characters really appealed to me and in the end I really liked the story. Yay!
(No, there’s no mistake in that image.)
八咫烏杯 やたがらすはい
Or, championship of the legendary three-legged crow
或る夫婦 by 朱 依村 (よりむら あけ)
I had a pretty hard time following some parts, but I got the gist, and it was cute and sweet.
Juice by のがみ もゆこ
Weird. 
And short. Not much to comment on.
夜の占い by 高砂 美海 (たかさご みあ)
The female character was annoying, but I liked the illustration style and the world-building and … pretty much everything else.
by 飯坂 アオイ (いいさか あおい)
Ack! Can’t do it. It was surprisingly dense and the boys’ conversation was already hard to follow, then they started using all these kanji words with furigana that my dictionary didn’t know … maybe they were names but either way I couldn’t follow a thing. I flipped through to the end where it turned into a 4-koma, which I did not dare attempt.
連載 / Continuing Series
ことり文書 by 天野 実樹 (あまの みき)
Heart-meltingly cute!!!
Shiraishi had a tough day.
So Kotori tries to cheer him up. Nothing works until she gives him a shoulder massage.
Then she gives him this!
司書正 by 丸山 薫 (まるやま かおる)
Just a short chapter this time, and won’t resume again until issue 87! Pretty.
生き残った６人によると by 山本和音 （やまもとかずね）
Liked this chapter a lot, but not really sure what was going on at the end with Renren. I guess maybe he came back as a zombie? And then collapsed? Not sure why he would die a second time without having to be killed though. And if he was just mortally wounded why would he have said he just died earlier? Am I just a little stupid today, or were the last two chapters (this one and 希釈王) really confusing?
シャッター街のさくら姫 by 宮本 怜美 (みやもと れいみ)
Yes! Loved this chapter! In my head-canon Sakurada is definitely the main character of this manga, and it’s told from the perspective of the secondary character. (This might be true outside of my head-canon too.)
アビスアジュールの罪人 by 冨 明仁 (とみ あきひと)
What’s with this super casual sexual assault at the end??? !
