昴とスーさん
I think the only commonality I can find is that we both thought Subaru was a woman which, from looking at the description of the first volume, doesn’t seem to be correct, although I got the age reversion thing correct.
sorry, I shouldn’t have implied you totally got the wrong end of the stick. I was struck by the common gender perception. It was an ambiguous chapter for starting blind
Here’s my post for manga volumes outside of the issues
Reserving this spot for my Harta 76 thoughts
Harta 76
生き残った6人によると 第１話
Kazune Yamamoto’s previous series! I didn’t realise that it started here but this is good timing what with Waver(s) also starting up. The artstyle definitely feels a bit more angular and blocky here while Waver(s) feels more wispy and flowing if that makes sense. Can still definitely see the similarities in style though. There’s some nice panelling here, like the shot of them walking through the mall where it is a wide shot but then has a closeup of the three walking at the bottom of the panel. Some funny bits too, like the little memorial to 木内 with the severed finger and a plaquard saying “RIP”, or the little だよ next to 女子部屋
Interesting that 正太郎 looked like he was being set up to be the love interest but just left at the end of this chapter. 梨々 couldn’t be much more different to 藤 from Waver(s). I’m looking forward to finding out more about the other survivors. Seems like each character will be quite different
山を渡る 第16話
This was cool - a climbing manga. Some of the wide shots of the mountains etc in this one were really breathtaking, and there was some nice shots of the characters mid-climb that gave a bit of action. 黒木 wanting to get to the top because they were so close but the experienced member of the group telling her that no, she needs to be safe was a good scene. I definitely want to check out some of the earlier chapters now. I will say that 金田 looked a bit goofy at first, but I warmed up to the artstyle pretty quickly.
Oh! Also, 凸凹 being used in the wild!
夏にビードロ
Nice oneshot, I enjoyed the little bit of detail on glass-blowing, though I would’ve liked for it to go a bit deeper into it. It was still a nice story, and didn’t outstay its welcome.
真柴姉弟は顔が固い 第1話
The premise of this manga reminded me somewhat of the horror game Who’s Lila? which is about constructing facial expressions by moving individual muscles. There were some good gags here, had me chuckling. Hopefully future chapters don’t just fall back on the same jokes and find new ones to tell, but the first chapter is promising
夕風に舞え、僕のリボン 第14話
I do think it would be interesting to read the previous chapters at some point. The artwork in this manga is lovely, and I do find myself compelled by the drama but still don’t quite have a grasp on what’s going on
手つかずの国 title 4
I really enjoyed the ridiculous premise here, and mix that with a sweet ending. The big てるてる坊主 looking kind of scary just added to how goofy the premise was
金曜日はアトリエで 第10話
Not finding this one all that interesting really. Might drop it going forwards. But maybe I’ll give it another chance first.
はなやっこ 第23回
This was pretty funny - I enjoyed some of the gags and it wasn’t too long
クプルムの花嫁 第3話
The little explanation about copper working was nice. Not really sure what to make of the scene at the end though
ふしぎの国のバード - skipped because I want to read from the start, but I did go and read chapter 1 because I already had volume 1 in my library
煙と蜜 第18話
Still not getting much from this, and the age difference makes it feel slightly awkward
紅椿 第12話
Wildly horny and I had completely the wrong impression of who the main characters were after the previous chapter haha
ライカの星 第2話
Oh man this was great - the flashback sequence at the start with the cosmic entity was really cool. What a design. And then ライカ making it back to earth. Killing the two passers-by was dark though
九国のジュウシ 第11話
This chapter was a lot easier to follow than last time - it had much more of an immediate hook. Firstly seeing 十四郎 decimate those guys was fun (this manga seems to like people getting beheaded), but then the real hook was obviously seeing 統虎 have to figure out the situation on his own and protect 十四郎. This did make me more interested in going back to see the earlier chapters though
ダンジョン飯 - Skipped, still want to read it from the start (I do now have all the volumes)
北北西に雲と往け その43
This chapter felt like fluff. I’m sure I would’ve enjoyed it a lot more if I was invested in these characters but ultimately it was sweet but not anything too standout
向かいの彼女
Maybe slight gl vibes from this one. I liked the interaction between the two girls and I want to see a continuation. The inverted colour schemes was also a nice visual choice to emphasise the contrast between them
アンリの靴 第4話
The explanations of the different types of leather was kind of interesting, but did make for some slow reading. Bonus points for cat. Also the guy at the leather shop fancies アンリ
Not really related to this chapter specifically but I read a chapter of JJBA earlier and looked up the word 梱包 and then noticed it again here. Love when that happens
ヴラド・ドラクラ 第20話
This was great - lots of twists and turns, and clearly a turning point in the narrative. I really want to go back and read this one from the start now. Yet another to throw on the catchup pile
冥府が来た！ 第3話
I enjoyed this one too. The chapter went for the classic style of Orpheus myth, going to the underworld to find a dead loved-one, but you can’t look back. Very fun. It’s a shame though, because I can’t seem to find this manga anywhere online. Would love to read chapters 1 and 2, but it seems like it never even got a volume release
ミギとダリ 第31話
I’m still not sure what on earth is going on. One of the twins isn’t there and the other is trying to act normal on his own? I guess? And also wants revenge on someone
紙一重りんちゃん 第十一回
Still don’t really get this one. It’s a 4コマ but I don’t really see much of a joke in most of these. Also the AI came back, boo
ニコラのおゆるり魔界紀行 第ニ十話
This was lovely - great artwork, and fun with magic. Definitely another to add to the ever-growing pile of manga I want to read. I’d love to get more context on the characters. Reminded me a bit of ハクメイとミコチ, which is up next
ハクメイとミコチ 第七十五話
This has to be my favourite series in Harta currently which is a shock because I don’t tend to like slice of life. But every chapter I’ve read so far has been excellent and I really love the vignette style of the chapters. It being somewhat fantasy-feeling also probably helps a bit. キアン being a book lover was also an easy way to my heart, and I felt devastated when he couldn’t go home to read his books. I really need to get some of the volumes for this
福引き怨霊生活 その七
I liked this one too. Seems like a bit of a turning point in the overall story. Took a look and turns out there’s only one volume. Maybe I’ll get that at some point and read the earlier chapters
不死の猟犬 最終章 第六話
I will be honest, I skimmed this one. It did strike me how similar certain characters look to the MC of the mangaka’s new manga (佐藤英子(32)はヒーローになれたか)
葵ちゃんの隣
Short and sweet
さよなら100円
Liked this. The awkward feeling of meeting someone who you’ve drifted apart from is something I can relate to. I especially relate to the part where 安達 sees 三村 and struggles with whether to call out to him
乙女物語 第六十五話
I like the artwork in this one, but it definitely feels like a slow burn
A子さんの恋人 最終回
This was the final chapter of this manga and I didn’t really know what was going on, but it was quite bittersweet ultimately
天狗の赤い髪
This one was lovely. Very nice artwork, and a fun little story. Not really much more to add here
ヒナマツリ - Skipped because last chapter, and also I now have a number of the earlier volumes thanks to the recent sale
End Matter
I read the article about how aliens don’t exist and found it interesting. Ultimately the idea that humanity is on its own and so should not be fighting each other is a nice one. I feel like reading these ending articles will probably be a helpful thing to do for reading practice though. Previews for next time look interesting, but will see when I get to it
I think it goes without saying that yeah this issue was absolutely worth that 100円
Standouts from this issue:
- 生き残った6人によると: I had expectations for this one and they were met. Very fun first chapter, and looking forward to the continuation
- 山を渡る: Mountain climbing was a fun topic to learn more about
- 真柴姉弟は顔が固い: The gags in this one were good - had me laughing along. Memorable concept
- 手つかずの国: Another funny one. The contrast of how horrifying the てるてる坊主 looked with the general tone was quite memorable
- ライカの星: This story continues to be wonderful, eager to read the next chapter
- アンリの靴: I learnt all about different types of leather this time
- ヴラド・ドラクラ: Historical manga about Vlad the Impaler? Sign me up. Already eyeing up those manga volumes for the previous chapters
- 冥府が来た！: This chapter had a great premise and executed that story quite well
- ニコラのおゆるり魔界紀行: Lovely artwork
- ハクメイとミコチ: This manga makes me feel things. Even though I’m not generally a slice of life fan, this one is special
- さよなら100円: I definitely identified with some of the emotions this oneshot explored. I thought it was quite well done
- 天狗の赤い髪: I think overall this was my favourite oneshot of the issue - nice artwork and nice story all round
Catch Up Series
I’ll be filling these out as I catch up/read the volumes of these series
峠鬼
Volume 1
Read chapter 1 so far and man the language is tricky here. Some stuff I just sort of glossed over a bit. The thing that’s really not helping is how awfully low quality the chapters are in the volume releases. I looked at the chapter that was in Harta 75 and the quality there looked absolutely fine. I think that chapter is the first one in volume 4, so once I finish volume 3 I’ll probably switch over to the magazine release
Chapter 1 was very interesting though - I managed to figure out that 後鬼 was 妙 from the future before that was properly revealed. That instantly had me hooked and I’m interested to see if anything more comes of that.
Chapter 2 was pretty good too - particularly enjoyed moth god. Also nice to get a bit of focus on 善鬼 since the opening chapter was more about 妙. The demon was really cool too. Quality of the manga on Bookwalker is still killing me though, those furigana are so hard to make out
I’ve switched to reading physicals now and it’s much better. Chapter 3 was interesting - was cool to see 妙 get a bit more to do on her own and show her resourcefulness. I would say this is one of the harder manga I’ve read though because there’s so much super formal and old-timey stuff. Takes me a good amount of time to get through chapters. But it’s still really cool - I love seeing the different 神器 and their effects. And I at least understand the overarching goals (getting an audience with 一言様 and wishing for 善 to get undemoned)
東京城址女子校生
瑠璃の宝石
黒巫鏡談
不思議の国のバード
Volume 1
Chapter 1
That was a lovely opening chapter. It was a little weird to wrap my head around reading the Japanese-as-English while the Japanese is gibberish kind of thing. But still, I feel like this is going to be a fun read. The same Hepburn who gave us the Hepburn romanisation system turning up and being an important character in this chapter was a surprise - I can’t say I knew much about him before reading this. I look forward to the continuation of the journey.
ダンジョン飯
九国のジュウシ
Reading with the 1 Chapter A Day feature on Bookwalker
Just read the first two chapters (since each chapter is actually split into two smaller ‘chapters’ on Bookwalker, and the first 3 of those are free to read and the 4th was my first use of the daily chapter. It should work out that I can read all of the chapters up to where it was in Harta 75 at least. The chapters were pretty good - turns out 十四郎 is a feral kid raised by wolves, who’s really good at combat. He’s found by a shogun who then wants him to help their country. The action was clean and readable, and the historical setting is fun.
Chapter 3 was fun - the violence is quite cartoony in a way and I kind of enjoy that. So much decapitation and amputation happening here. 紹運 showing that he values his people to 十四郎 was nice too
Few more chapters in now, and oh no, wolf mother died! That was an absolutely brutal scene, especially with the gore. And 十四郎 walked in on 若殿 just after he’d put her out of her misery
And the start of the next chapter provides an unexpected twist that he was actually ok with it
Almost approaching where the digital Harta issues pick up, and 千熊丸 has now become 統虎 who I saw the in the later chapters. He’s definitely come a ways, but a lot of that was off-screen
昴とスーさん
Reading with 1 chapter a day on Bookwalker
Read the first few chapters so far and it’s an interesting one. Interesting that it starts with 昴 already being in the young state. Like we don’t even see the moment it happened? Maybe that will come as a flashback in a later chapter?
I quite enjoyed the chapter when the 大家’s daughter decided to try to make friends with 昴
Finished volume 1, the last two chapters were pretty good. I especially liked getting to see a bit of 昴’s life before the Event, and the happening itself. I knew we’d see it at some point, since we didn’t at the start, but it did provide a climactic moment for the end of volume 1. I have to wonder if it was planned that way - I guess it’s likely it was
The first chapter in volume 2, with 昴 going back to the restaurant he used to work at and telling the owner what happened was also nice. Very sweet conclusion
language comment about クラスのアイドルは今日も推せない in issue 91
For what it’s worth, if it helps - it’s tricky because of the multiple people involved and some volleyball terminology, but I believe what’s happening is that Takayama (the class idol) sees Hanasaki (her overlooked oshi) successfully keep the ball live passing to Hashizume (some other girl on the team), and so Takayama verbally compliments both Hanasaki and Hashizume, and internally she extols the cool thing she just saw her idol Hanasaki do: take unspectacular volleyball fundamentals and make them shine, keeping the volley going and the ball in play for their team. She looks to see if the other classmates have noticed how cool Hanasaki is this way, but of course, alas, they have not, as they all only have eyes for Takayama, and extol her instead for drawing out the effort in the other two with her compliments.
If no help preferred, no worries!
It’s mid February, so it’s Harta season again! I was pleasantly excited for this one and read it quickly. ハルタ １３１号.
Also - it’s only tangentially related to Harta but I mentioned it earlier in the thread, and the essay comic about adopting a stray cat by the author of 希釈王 is out and I read it on Bookwalker too and very very much recommend it! 野良猫ごんた、家猫になる
ハルタ９２
Is it just me, or does it feel like this issue has a halloween theme? … In March …
対岸のメル ₊ ⋱ 新連載 ⋰₊
I recognize this from the yomikiri!
At first I was sort of meh on it … But then at the end it really hit me in the feels with some strong Bright/Dark themes.
ウスズミの果て ₊ ⋱ 新連載 ⋰₊
I’ve heard of this one before!
This page explains the world and I read it but without making an effort to understand, so I got the gist, ish, but figured I'd save it for later in case at some point I'm like 'gosh I really wish I knew what was going on here' :')
Speculation
So, the main character seems to be some kind of self-healing emergency response android … But also eats human food? I wonder if that’s significant, or just a funny quirk to make her daily routine more interesting …
猫のまにまに
This chapter was silly and reminded me of when my conversation tutor told me that in Japan they are a lot less prudish about talking about bathroom stuff. She said if you know your friend is going off to poop then when they come back you might ask 出た？
This made me lol. ^^
クプルムの花嫁
Cute chapter with intergenerational support and advice for how to learn to live harmoniously together with your partner.
And also this little detail of life in snow country!
珍獣のお医者さん ₊ ⋱ 新連載 ⋰₊
This one was somehow quite different to what I was expecting! I guess I wasn’t anticipating it would be a page-turner but it was. I did expect there to be a lot of vocabulary and kanji that was unfamiliar, and that was true, but it didn’t feel like a slog getting through it.
ホテルメッツ...
Maybe each time I’ll remember a tiny bit more of the name of the hotel …
I enjoyed this chapter! I definitely have the vibe from this story that the majority of the men in it are gay, but that clarity on that point is avoided. (Which, 
) But anyway, I kind of feel like Jun and this most recent guest could become a thing at some point.
Jun’s face is so cute.
Same as above: Jun face cute.
かわいすぎる人よ ₊ ⋱ 新連載 ⋰₊
Indeed, cute! Not sure where they are planning on going with this, but the first three chapters (printed together because they are super short) had their own cute arc.
questions
Question 1: They have been talking about two things kind of at the same time: the bath, and a woman who wrote Uncle a love letter and Mei says he should read it (although he didn’t want to). So … what is Mei talking about in the bottom right panel?
Question 2: what is “3本たてでお届け”?
⭐️ ショートショート 花が咲いたよ
Loved this one! I feel like the content and the format suited each other perfectly. Like, if it had been much longer the density of visual information could have gotten overwhelming, but in a really short story it was perfect to make the story feel fully fleshed out. Also, I think I remember which 八咫烏杯 story this mangaka wrote, and iirc I liked that one a lot too! ^^
ナッちゃんはテンションで水深が変わる
I enjoyed the misunderstanding at the center of this chapter.
Is this what しのぶれど色 is referring to here (below)? (Takoboto had not a clue, but weblio.jp swooped in to the rescue.) But also, what is 出でにけるもの? I’m so confused.
ことり文書
I really like the way the pattern on her yukata is drawn here.
Also funny that Shiraishi started their brainstorming session with a very reasonable, easy to carry out, and effective-sounding idea, and Kotori immediately interrupted with “Let’s tie a long string between us at all times” and then they stayed up all night coming up with ridiculous ideas.
卵の鳥籠 ✧ — ✧読切✧— ✧
Visually stunning, but fairly seriously lacking in the storytelling department. (Not that there was a lack of story, just that it wasn’t good.)
先生、今月はどうですか？
One of these days I am going to stop reading this one, but today is not that day. This chapter it was revealed that Murasaki’s family knows about her power, and her dad wants her to not use it lightly. Also, he had her doing landlord work because he saw that her power created distance between her and her classmates, and he wanted her to … um, have another 居場所? This thought process is strangely difficult to translate into English. Anyway, he’s happy that doing landlord work has brought her closer to other people.
Even though I have a variety of issues with the story, I think the art just keeps convincing me “one more chapter!”
魔法少年マモル始まらない
Not much to comment on. The title page made me think that maybe this series is trying to criticize the shallowness of some of the popular 魔法少女 stories (cough, pretty cure, cough)? But nothing else is particularly backing that up.
あかねさす柘榴の都
A (for me) very relatable story about being a kid in a shared house and doing something that you kind of know is wrong but you feel like you can’t help it. In my case it was sneaking into someone’s room while she was away in order to see the litter of kittens her cat just had. (She was really mad when she walked in on me in there.) (I’m happy ニーニャ’s story has a happier ending.)
クラスのアイドルは今日も推せない
I love how [spoiler]this chapter ends with a delicious smells revolution. That’s my kind of revolution. ^[1]
new illustration advertising the digital editions
If I were talented enough to be able to read Harta while doing those activities I definitely would.
/spoiler ↩︎
And I finished 88 and really enjoyed it! Will now use this post as a draft for 89…
Issue 92 かわいすぎる人よ！ question answers
I would say:
“I’m gonna finish running the bath, 'kay?”
They were having the conversation while she was about to take a bath, and so she’d presumably started preparing it off-panel, and now she’s ending the conversation that became slightly serious by returning to what she was doing.
The ちゃっていいよね～ is grammatically speaking ostensibly asking for permission (like てもいい) but in the most casual and perfunctory kind of way that’s more like just acknowledging she’s going to do it, in this case as a light conversation ender after she got slightly serious.
They’re bringing you three chapters of this manga in this issue. 三本立て is literally “triple feature” like when three back to back movies are advertised, and the blurb is hyping up/letting you know there’s going to be 3 chapters.
(that series is just organized like that, with multiple short chapters each time it appears, each handled the same as a full-fledged chapter like in any other series in terms of the end blurb and title card and stuff)
That edit count number’s accumulating fast!
answers
Ah, thanks! Although the 湯 part did tip me off that she was going back to the bath, I somehow got it in my head that there might be some idiom action going on there. I think also because I’m not familiar with how to talk about running the bath so 溜める was new to me.
Ohhhhh! Thanks!
Yes! 
Part of it is that I’m usually reading more than one chapter a day at the moment ^^ … part is that I edit once per chapter on my e-ink tablet to add pictures from there, and once from my laptop to write comments and format, and part is because I like to break the drop downs while I’m editing and sometimes forget to un-break them and have to do a whole new edit to add one little bracket ]
How are you keeping up as I go, by the way? Does your feed let you know when I’ve edited? Or do you just stop by and check once a day or something? Either way it’s fun getting responses as I go, so thanks again. 
No problem! It doesn’t notify me but I’ll confess I’ve proved not above scrolling back up through the thread every so often to check if anyone’s added anything to their ongoing posts. 
Love it, this reminds me that I need to start my Harta 77 post, I’ll get on that now so you have something to read
Harta #77
catch-up corner for manga I’m reading outside the issue format
series debuts:
先生、今月どうですか
OK, I gave this one a fair and openminded shot but I do feel like it’s skirting the edge of what’s comfortable for content here, like, I guess they don’t do anything while she’s underaged, but she still knows about it? And the focus is on how they will definitely have a romance in the future. So I wasn’t really into it.
Knowing you’ll be in a romance with someone in the future raises some questions for me, because if you know you’ll fall in love, are you really naturally falling in love or is that informing how you feel about someone and your actions? Are you rejecting other people because you know about the future? 
I feel like you could explore some interesting questions, but this manga does seem more like it just wants to have a longing age gap where she imagines a romantic future with an older dude a bunch of times and that’s it.
帝都影物語
This one is kind of hard, I had to set it aside and then come back later when I was willing to fight through it. Once I got used to the kind of fancy courtly vocabulary I got the idea, but I don’t know if I like it much yet. I don’t care for monarchies and emperors and things so this like intense loyalty to a royal family member being the theme wasn’t really hitting for me. Not sure if I will keep reading this one given the difficulty and it not really clicking in the first chapter, we’ll see!
Also, when I saw the preview in the last issue, I thought the two princes were girls, but no… 
夜の名前を呼んで
This is a freebie for me because I read the first volume with the book club, haha yess! It didn’t grab me quite enough when I read it to make an effort to keep reading the collected volumes, but since I’m encountering it in Harta now I’ll keep reading it once I get to new chapters. I flipped through the chapter to remind me of what happened. The art is really gorgeous and I’m interested in the worldbuilding and magical powers. One thing I remember being a bit confused by when I read this with the club was how old Mira was even supposed to be, because I felt that she acted pretty young? But I couldn’t tell if she was a teenager, or 10, or 24, or what. These manga artists never make ages clear
one-shots:
めんや
About a mysterious character that can make masks with different magical abilities, and using those masks to make a nice onsen trip. I thought this one was okay, I didn’t really connect with the art, and I found especially the first scene where they were using the masks to eat trash a little hard to follow with the art. I couldn’t really tell what was going on until it was explained in the text.
Ok I was confused by the phrasing here too, thanks for the clarification. Now I’m relieved that I don’t have to read more chapters because I didn’t like it that much
緑色の牙と恋
This was a fun one! I thought the cutest panel was the one I screencapped here… Let her have a little nibble, as a treat 
continuing series:
真柴姉弟顔が固い
Lol I like this manga. Kind of a fun example of one I probably wouldn’t pick up on my own, but am enjoying now that I’m reading it! Now that the characters have been introduced/established, the interactions are more funny, which I feel like is the type of comedy manga I enjoy.
東京城址女子校生
You can tell it’s almost the end of the manga because it was all introspective on the creation of the club and the value of friendships I bought the first volume of this recently in a sale so I’ll read it sometime when it calls to me.
生き残った６人によると
Still really liking this, the comedic timing is on point. My favorite moment with a visual gag:
夕凪に舞え、僕のリボン
Aw, little dude is finally leaving for school. I think this one ends in the next issue so I’ll be glad to have an empty slot for a new manga
ライカの星
Wow, this manga is a standout. The art and story are so moving 感動しました。The full page spread with Laika’s ‘true form’ was stunning. I can’t think of any way for this to end other than tragically.
ふろラン
This manga is.. just okay. I found the main character’s inferiority complex about being worse at running than her friend to be kind of annoying, so the whole conflict of the chapter didn’t land for me. The mid writing combined with a little too much focus in the art on boobage had me a bit annoyed after reading this
冥府が来た！
This is an interesting seeming horror manga but it’s a bit hard to get invested since I missed the first few chapters.
北北西に雲と往け
I keep reading this one even though it’s transferring soon and I have no idea what’s going on in the story because I like how the artist draws people. Another fun benefit of reading a manga magazine is checking out all the different art styles!
西武高校あおぞら弓道部
I really like the lines in the artwork on this one so I mostly just looked at the art and didn’t pay attention that hard to the story (which seemed normal enough). This one is almost over, I’m not sure if the story seems good enough to read the other volumes but maybe someday I’ll check it out.
Read with no particular comments
クプルムの花嫁
アンリの靴
乙嫁語り
What I read/TOC
This time I read a total of 19*/39 chapters (~500 pages), which still felt like a lot but I guess I skipped almost half! *夜の名前を呼んで was read previously, so really 18
This time there were a few series that I’d read chapters of before, but I started reading the chapter in this issue and wasn’t really feeling it. Here’s the TOC with everything I read/skipped (I find this kind of satisfying to look at):
overall impressions of the issue:
The standout from this issue was definitely Laika’s Star! I feel like I read a pretty decent variety of series here but I’m still waiting to find a new long-running series that I really fall in love with. Maybe that’s my fault for skipping the famous Dungeon Meshi Another highlight of reading this magazine is getting to check out the one-shots, that definitely feels like an area of manga that would be difficult to explore for English speaking fans, and I appreciate when my language skills unlock new and interesting things that I wouldn’t have had access to before!
catch-up corner: 昴とスーさん volume 2
My thoughts (spoilers)
Just finished reading this yesterday! In this volume, we get a flashback to Subaru’s original childhood and meeting Mio as childhood friends. We learn that he lived with his grandmother who’s now dead, and he got bullied for not remembering his former school…? That’s a bit mysterious, does he have some kind of huge trauma in his childhood? Maybe the death of his parents? That would explain why we haven’t heard from his family and why he needs to live with Mio.
We also heard from the restaurant owner who was understanding of Subaru’s situation. I liked the bit where Subaru goes back to baseball because restaurant owner guy asks him what he would like to do over (or something like that) and Subaru regrets dropping out of baseball because of an injury. The theme of getting a do-over for your childhood is an interesting one, and combined with the mystery about his past I wonder if we are working towards something bigger where he has something he needs to confront from his childhood before he can move on and become an adult again.
But, then, I can also equally see the possibility of him not being able to become an adult and the conclusion of the manga being that Mio will wait for him to grow up. So I’m not sure where we’ll go from here.
Now I’ll need someone to reply because I have three posts in a row
Combo breaker!
昴とスーさん
Something you wrote is way different than my understanding, so while I go back to find my detailed notes and figure out where we deviated, here are my notes for:
Did I switch whose grandmother it is? As I was writing the post I couldn’t quite remember if it was Subaru’s grandmother or Mio’s grandmother and didn’t go back to check. Edit: nope it was his grandmother, so now I’m curious to know what was different 
昴とスーさん
It turns out, no difference 
sorry, just my memory
Now I remember, at this point we’re speculating. I forgot the bullying part and saw it in my Harta notes here.
This is what I wrote at this flashback in my private detailed notes:
Subaru moved to Mio’s town in 6th grade or so. He didn’t remember his previous school? Or it was an excuse, maybe not to talk about it? His grandmother raised him, and she passed away in his 3rd year of middle school in a car accident. He dropped out of school and took odd jobs until he started working for the restaurant run by Doujima. After 1 year of that he ask out Mio.
Yeah, I hadn’t even considered than until that point for some reason. I loved his boss’s humour!
Now I’m missing this and need to drop everything to read Harta 
昴とスーさん
I can see from his backstory (seems like he always liked Mio but felt that he wasn’t good enough for her until he got the restaurant job) why he would be so invested in the relationship and why he has nowhere else to go. There have been a couple of times where I’m like, should they not just break up? Maybe that would be the more adult and reasonable thing to do, and go their separate ways. But then, where would he go when he looks like a child…
Whenever anyone posts in here I get excited to read it again the power of book clubs
Issue 92 ナッちゃんはテンションで水深が変わる question answer
What has tripped you up here is 1000 year old poetry! As this is referencing a 百人一首 poem:
忍ぶれど 色に出でにけり わが恋は ものや思ふと 人の問ふまで
Searching for the phrase then will come up with many sources explaining what it means for modern audiences, such as this one, which provides the modern Japanese translation:
心に隠していたけれど、顔色に表れてしまっていたのだなあ、私の恋心は。「何か物思いをしているのですか」と人が尋ねるほどに。
So – it’s certainly understandable that you would suddenly be lost in the suddenly outdated grammar!
I would recommend as what could have been the tip off here - the structure of this section is essentially:
“but love is [CONFUSING STRANGE SEEMING WORDS]… so (Nacchan’s psychic fish manifestations made it clear she did like the boy despite her protestations)”
This is how I was able to tell that [CONFUSING STRANGE SEEMING WORDS] was likely a quote of some kind meaning that love shows through to outward observers. And then that (and having some experience reading 百人一首 type poems before) made it not too difficult to figure was probably 忍れど meaning something roughly like “I try to hide it but” and 色に出でにける was probably about the love shining through. So it ends up more or less readable at least in the full context that way, even not really being a master of medieval grammar.
Wow, thank you! I got a taste of thousand year old poetry in my Kaguya-sama and Bug-Princess reader and it is indeed [CONFUSING STRANGE SEEMING WORDS]. I don’t necessarily need to be a master, but someday I would love to have a primer in medieval Japanese. 