Harta #76
February 2025
general club chat
I can’t believe it, in the space of a month I’ve gone from “maybe I should start exploring 1 story a month in Harta” to “I can’t get enough of this magazine” 
new series
🧟 生き残った6人によると / What 6 Survivors Told
This looks playful and fun. I was a bit worried that neither romance or zombie apocalypse are my genre, but actually the humorous action sequences and wit are pretty entertaining. Love this how she does a parcour over the zombie and apologises 
👥️ 真柴姉弟は顔が固い
I skipped because the art and story just didn’t capture my attention, I’m generally not up for the school setting
one-shots
What a treat, I enjoyed all of these.
👺 天狗の赤い髪
That was a fun insight into a period manga! The art captured my attention right away.
There’s no explanation why this guy is there right? It seems like a whimsical and creative take on a moment in the life of a westerner attempting to get outside of the officially allowed places to visit in Japan before 1868.
I wonder if the character is (very loosely) based on Heinrich Schliemann, a German businessman and amateur archaeologist (I consulted the very short list on Wikipedia of people who visited Japan before 1868 for similar names at the end of that period; the list itself is fascinating). Although he was only in Japan for 2 months and I didn’t find any evidence that he strayed outside of where he was allowed to go, the name was similar, and some details of his life (being a rebel and learning languages quickly), it struck me as perhaps some of his story might have been an inspiration. Maybe not, but here is an article if you’re curious about him.
German’s diary offers rare look of life in Tokyo in mid-19th century | The Asahi Shimbun: Breaking News, Japan News and Analysis
Gorgeous and playful cover:
I love this panel and the background text with all the reasons he stands out:
⚗️夏にビードロ
That was a cute story. I probably missed some nuance as I didn’t dwell on it much. I had no idea what a ビードロ was. It seems to be a glass toy for kids that you blow into and it makes a sound. Here’s a video that shows one:
🌾 さよなら100円
I liked this story, I could definitely identify with the hard lesson of how to deal with loss and change in others. I liked how this panel highlighted both characters, it really got that feeling across of the boy turned away awkwardly trying to pretend he didn’t see his old friend, but obviously he’s thinking about him and knows exactly where he’s sitting.
👜 向かいの彼女 / A girl the other side of me
I loved this story and it worked so well as a one-shot. For me it brought out possibilities - this idea that just by seeing someone everyday (but from a distance), you might wonder if there would be a chance to become friends. Smiley girl treats the whole situation as if they are already great friends, and I like that world view. Also, in smiley girl I saw a lot of my earlier self, a kind of playfulness and optimism that I lost over time. It’s hard to explain but this one really struck a chord with me.
continuing series
☄️ ライカの星 / Laika's star Ch 2
The art in this series is simply adorable. The story is so unique I find it irresistible and I can’t wait for the next installment.
This portrayal of a dog-friendly star goddess in the flashback sequence was pretty convincing actually:
How to make self-destruct mode look adorable:
oh no, Laika’s sad eyes when Mushuka decided not to go back to Earth with her
I like the distinctly different look of Earth compared to Laika’s star:
…
Edit: I forgot to put notes in for 手つかずの国. It seems to be a series of one shots (you don’t need to catch up before this point). This one was a story about giant てるてる坊主 (normally those little ghost looking dolls you see hanging, I learned they are meant to help bring good weather / clear skies). It was a great story, I’m glad I read it!
For any other series not listed here, if/when I catch up on it later, I’ll link notes from my Harta 75 or Harta 76 (below) homes posts depending on which issue was that manga’s first digital appearance.
catch-up notes
This section is for discussing continuing series that require catchup - i.e. manga running in Harta before the first digital issue #75.
First, notes for what I was catching up on at the time of this original post:
👖 昴とスーさん / The Strange Life of Subaru - Vol 2 Ch 7-10
The links to all my catch-up notes for 昴とスーさん are in my Harta 75 home post.
This went from “I like it” to “I love it and keep thinking about the characters”. Until the end of volume 1, it felt quite light and daily life, but wasn’t really scratching a deeper surface for me. Now, it really is getting into the depths of feelings and the reality of the situation as it’s set up. It’s actually the first manga where I’ve become attached to the characters.
Now and then I’ll realise something like (not spoilers after you know the premise/first few chapters), oh no, even if Subaru grows up they can’t be a romantic partner because everyone knows them as brother and sister, or, where is Subaru’s family and how do they deal with that?, and, what if someone finds out that Subaru isn’t in school, is Mio going to prison?
Something about the art conveys so much of the feeling of the scenes for me. I have no idea if these images look objectively nice outside of the context of the story, but for me, I can’t get enough of it, for some reason I love the atmosphere.
Here are collected links to catch-up notes for series whose first digital appearance is from Harta 76, which I’ll continue to add to as I catch up on these!
🌄 山を渡る -三多摩大岳部録 / Traversing Mountains - Records of the Santama University Mountaineering Club
- In Harta 76, this series appears from Ch 16. This is episodic so I’ll start with just Vol 1 and decide from that point if I will read Vol 2-3 or just jump into Harta 76)
- Vol 1: Ch 1 notes in catch-up section of Harta 79 post
🗺 Continuing series I still intend to catch up on
I’m catching up with one series at a time. In my Harta 75 post I listed the は and る series. Here are the た series I am most interested in (whose first digital issue is in Harta 76).
- ふしぎの国のバード (“Isabella Bird in Wonderland” / “Unbeaten Tracks in Japan”) (There are 7 volumes preceding Harta 75 which starts at Ch 36 Pt 4. I’ll read vol 1 before deciding how much catch-up I want to do before following it in Harta)
- ニコラのおゆるり魔界紀行: The art just looks so fun. Harta 76 starts from Ch 20, so unfortunately, to catch up fully I would need to buy all volumes (Volume 4 starts from chapter 18). And I’ll be well past the Harta issue where this series ends (around 80 or 81) by the time I catch up. So this will be more of a nice discovery through Harta, that I probably end up not reading in the magazine at all.