I filled in all my Harta issue posts so far onto the graph thing!
The first one for 80 is interesting since I gave (often in retrospect completely wrong) first impressions of everything I found in the magazine. It’s funny how depending on the chapter a series can seem completely different if you’re coming to it for the first time.
I also noticed I’d apparently been meaning to do that series rundown post for over two full years, and that I had made a start to the format that I then completely forgot about when I finally made the one this year. It’s funny that I ended up reinventing almost the same structure for the final post (wow even down to the two screenshots - wild).
One maybe interesting bit of policy for the thread to consider is spoilers – it might get extra messy considering the huge superset of series that any given person might be caught up on, catching up on, or skimming and posting impressions not knowing what’s a spoiler and what isn’t.
Anyway - probably common sense and prodigious use of the ‘hide details’ dropdowns and <spoiler></spoiler> tags whenever in doubt, and knowing going into the thread that what’s in the magazine is fair game to discuss if there’s something you definitely want to avoid, would be fine.
I find reading the magazine you quickly get a sense for which series are pretty much completely fine reading each month without being caught up and aren’t really spoilerable anyway (e.g. the geology one or Hakumei and Mikochi) vs. the more plot-based ones (e.g. Dungeon Meshi, 司書正). The former mean there’s plenty to enjoy in each issue even if not caught up at all on anything, and with the latter… well, I think hopefully for the most part briefly skimming a chapter does more to generate intrigue than really spoil anything? But I’d be curious to hear particularly how people end up dealing with / reacting to Dungeon Meshi nearing its conclusion in this span of issues that went on sale. I think for me I did end up mentally logging some series in my head as like ‘oh I’m definitely going to catch up to that at some point’ and then aggressively flipping past their new chapters in the meantime.
But yeah! Exciting!!
I love Harta and look forward to more people hopefully enjoying it. It’s not perfect or anything, but I think they knock presentation out of the park, feeling much more cozy and inviting as a production than any other magazine I’ve read so far, and every series and short (even the few I outright dislike) are at least a little bit interesting, with a couple being my absolute favorite series.
P.S. One small edit request: I prefer they/them. Not your fault at all though since I don’t really say it anywhere!