Reserving this place for my Volume 75 thoughts
One thing I really want to note about the magazine in general is that I really appreciate that the digital editions have a decent resolution. I’ve previously tried reading Ultra Jump from the issues on Bookwalker and the quality of the image was bad. Was hard to make out furigana, while that’s not so much of an issue here.
青武高校あおぞら弓道部 第22話
Gave some thoughts above but just reread it and yeah, the artwork is really nice in this one. And the immediate story of 日比野 messing up a vital shot and beating herself up for it was compelling enough to pull me through. The little summary at the start was also useful to get me up to speed on what’s happening immediately. I might have to take a look at getting the volumes of this to read it in full.
クプルムの花嫁 第2話
This one seems to be a slice of life about a newlywed/to-be-wed couple. Not sure on the exacts of how they came to be engaged etc, but seems like they were childhood friends. I think the most interesting part to me was the little section on 槌起銅器. Wasn’t too interesting to me otherwise, but I’m not huge on slice of life in general unless there’s a really interesting premise to keep me engaged.
Feeling like I might get a lot of mileage out of this image during my reading
ヤギと羊の王冠 その2
So I guess this a manga about beer. I’m not quite sure what the premise fully is, though. Like what would the next chapter be about? Is it just about the rivalry between the two breweries? I just don’t know if I can see this having legs, feels like it would get tiresome quite quickly. There being a cat gets it bonus points
Edit: I looked into it and it seems like it’s a Romeo and Juliet type story about two rival breweries and a boy and girl from them. So I guess this chapter is just showing the grudge between them? With that extra context it makes a little more sense I suppose
東京城址女子校生 第19話
Ok I loved this one - I enjoy history so finding out about お台場 and why it’s called that was really cool, and the characters were fun. They each had a distinctive personality and had some fun banter together (particularly enjoyed the joke about 菜々 looking like a foreign tourist). Also liked the artstyle a lot, very appealing character design and the environments looked great. I absolutely want to go and read the rest of this now off the strength of this one chapter alone.
アンリの靴 第3話
This one had me tearing up, the take on death was surprisingly mature - though I guess this is in a seinen magazine so I shouldn’t be so surprised. But yeah, was not expecting something so heavy from a manga about shoe-making (sidenote: if I had a penny for every manga about shoemaking I’ve seen I’d have two pennies, which isn’t a lot but it’s weird it happened twice). But the end also made sure to introduce a bit of levity and I’m glad it didn’t end on a downer. Also bonus points for an adorable kitty. Definitely one to watch going forwards!
夕凪にまえ、僕のリボン 第13話
This one I definitely felt the lack of prior context more strongly. There’s some drama going on - and if I understand correctly it’s that the boy - 倫太郎 - wants to go to a middle school in Osaka, but money problems. He lives at home with his sister and single father (there doesn’t seem to be a mother in the picture), but lately his dad has been staying out on long fishing trips, causing his sister to worry that something has happened at sea. Also 倫太郎 does rhythmic gymnastics and this is related for his reason for wanting to go to Osaka. It seems like they live in the Hiroshima area maybe? The じゃ and じゃんけんs give me that impression, but I’ll admit I’m not a dialect expert. It wasn’t too bad to follow once I’d figured out that けん is basically equivalent to から. Oddly compelling drama, but I’d probably get more out of it if I’d been following the previous chapters
ライカの星 第1話
Laika and an army of dogs plotting to take revenge on humans. Interesting premise. First chapter was alright, though did feel a little short maybe. I’ll be interested to see where this goes because first impressions are positive. I especially enjoyed Laika’s right-hand-dog who is a lot more laid-back and just wants to live in peace on the dog’s world
金曜日はアトリエで 第9話
Wasn’t huge on this one - seems like the manga is about an artist, and in this chapter he’s been tasked with creating a design for a makeup pouch. Not exactly sure what the relationship between the painter and the woman is, but he gets her to go and ask her friends and then he makes a design. Didn’t feel like there was much point to it really.
ヒナまつり 第99話
Coming into this seeing it was basically an epilogue was kind of interesting. With my lack of other context it basically just reads like a chapter about someone who has just started university and is seeing where all their friends have ended up. It wasn’t really too confusing at least.
姫と忍び
This was cute and the artwork was gorgeous. The spread with the princess offering the rice to the monster was beautiful, as well as the one with the interior of the castle. I feel bad for the poor princess - even if she’s clumsy the villagers do isolate her. The shinobi was fun too - coming to steal from the castle only to immediately get swept up in the princess’ task, and him coming back at the end was sweet.
碧いホルスの瞳 第35話
Not sure exactly what was going on. Something about the pharoh’s (who is a woman) daughter dying and then she let the guy who was arrested in relation to it go? Seemed kind of interesting maybe. Would probably need to catch up on this since it feels like it’s a more plot focused one
煙と蜜 第17話
Yeah no idea what’s going on in this one. Military stuff. And then the commander dude went home. Not a super exciting chapter or one that has me interested in reading more particularly.
はなやっこ 第22回
This was ok. Some mildly funny jokes, but nothing that had me chuckling particularly. 4-koma are something I need to try more of.
死なずの猟犬 第5話
Looks like we’re entering this super late into the story. At first glance I kind of assumed this would be a sports manga or something, but imagine my surprise when they get to talking about secret societies and organisations and the extinction of humanity against AI. I have no context for most of what was going on, but I’ll admit I was oddly compelled by it. Most of the chapter taking place in the bathhouse with two naked sweaty men was a choice, kind of have to respect it. My recent experience with Ace Attorney was definitely paying off with some of the terminology in here which was nice
極東事変 第10話
This one definitely felt like it suffered from a lack of context on who these people are and what is going on. I mainly got that there’s a mad general who’s trying to stage a coup because he wants Japan to have a military and not be under foreign powers, and he takes a government official hostage to get them to join him. Then people are trying to stop that.
It was nice to get a bit of action in there though.
九国のジュウシ 第10話
Seems like the young lord wants to be respected and liked but has to ask a lower class(?) person for help, and feels like he’s the real hero. I enjoyed this, once I got something of a grasp on the names being thrown around at the start. Did feel quite compressed though, maybe would’ve been nice to see more of the actual battle. Also that sword trainer guy reminds me of the funny faces from those elf/human comics that are overdrawn for comedic effect
紙一重りんちゃん 第10回
Going to be real, I did not see much of a point to this one. Not falling for the AI propaganda.
峠鬼 - skipped as I intend to read the full series
昴とスーさん 第24話
Sweet little story. I gathered that Subaru was reverted into a child and was going to meet someone she’d been close to when she was an adult. That meeting was well done, with her feeling awkward about telling him at first.
ダンジョン飯 - skipped as intend to read the full series
トネリコ
This was sweet. I liked that this honed in on the liminal feeling of that time between midnight and dawn. Nice little oneshot
ミギとダリ 第30話
Oh I get it, they’re called ミギ and ダリ because it’s a play on 右 and 左 since they’re very different. I have no idea why there’s two identical people but one is evil and turns the other guy into a bat rooster thing but it was a wild ride anyway. Having no context on this manga I thought 秘鳥 had actually jumped out the window so it was a twist that there were two of them. But that then established some understandable stakes. Also got to learn fun terms like 双曲線 and 反比例 from this.
ふろラン 第5話
I’m not a runner, but as someone who was very much Not A Runner at school I can related to how 古川 felt doing her marathon run, feeling like everyone else is just so much better. Really the main difference is that she wants to be running, while I didn’t. And felt bad at the end when she didn’t manage to complete the run. Beautiful artwork in this one. Pretty short and readable too. Will definitely be happy to check back in in a few issues time to see how the little arc about 古川 being insecure about whether ゆい really enjoys running with her works out
瑠璃の宝石 第6話
The explanation of fluorescence was nice, I enjoy learning new stuff and this seems like a fun way to do so. It kind of reminded me of bits from Dr Stone from when I was following that manga. Though I could’ve done without the sexualisation of the characters. I’ll probably want to check out the first volume of this for the earlier chapters
福引怨霊生活 その6
This one took a bit to get going, but I definitely felt the moment that 福子 (is that her name?) started just shutting down and feeling tired. Being an introvert I’ve definitely experienced moments like that - for different reasons, but still. The art kind of fluctuated between looking nice and being a bit goofy. But ultimately I did find myself feeling oddly charmed with the low stakes plot of her basically just being teased by a ghost and her kind of just being like “it’s not very nice to do that”.
紅椿 第11話
Is that chapter title a 電車でゴー reference? This one was alright. Did have to laugh a little at the woman turning up at the end and kissing the monster lady they caught earlier so hard she passed out. That character in general screamed “my super cool OC who is so attractive”
北北西に雲と往け その42
Guy who can talk to cars and phones stalks another guy who his wife suspects of cheating. Wasn’t really feeling this, although it’s cool that it’s set in Iceland
レキとヨミ 最終話
Final chapter of this one and as expected it didn’t do anything for me. Well, that’s a lie - I did really dislike that one character who showed up and started sexually assaulting people. That wasn’t cool.
乙嫁語り 第64話
Lovely artwork here, and this chapter was really showing it off with dialogue taking more of a backseat. I didn’t have context on the characters but figured that the main character was a more reserved woman but she slowly warmed up to the sea and that was a nice little arc for the chapter. Maybe this is one to look at previous volumes for.
つきたて！餅子町
Short and sweet. Not too much to say on this one, it’s only a couple of pages long.
鉄磯のダン 最終話
Active disgust reading this one. Glad it’s the final chapter of this particular manga because it was horrible. And there wasn’t even any actual mecha stuff.
ハクメイとミコチ 第74話
From one of the worst in the issue to one of the outright best. The joys of manga magazines. I loved this chapter. Full of that ホノボノ spirit. The two train conductors were precious, especially with them bonding over their mutual interests and trying to make the other happy. Also the talking photorealistic beetle was fun. I did read the first chapter of this a few days back and that was also really good. I think this is one for me to keep an eye on and there’s plenty of volumes to get through before this chapter
End matter
Noticed Ryoko Kui mentioning getting a VR headset to play Half-Life (presumably Alyx). Based.
Did I get my 100 yen’s worth? Yeah absolutely.
Standouts from this issue:
- 青武高校あおぞら弓道部: archery focus was interesting and art was nice
- 東京城址女子校生: I like castles and learning about them is fun
- アンリの靴: was impressed with the maturity this handled the subject matter with and I’m interested to see what else this manga does
- ライカの星: Interesting premise and lovely artwork
- 姫と忍び: Some jawdropping artwork and a sweet story
- トネリコ: A sweet little liminal story
- 瑠璃の宝石: Fun and educational
- ハクメイとミコチ: Heartwarming, and also bonus points for a cool beetle