Do you know how many volumes we’d need to read before it to be caught up to where this chapter starts out? The series is on my list, so I’m contemplating getting caught up to where this issue starts and then just reading along with the rest as I work through Harta (assuming I don’t get too impatient getting the chapters doled out like that and get tempted to skip ahead and binge it…).
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Yep! The chapter in Harta issue 75 is Dungeon Meshi chapter 65, which is the 3rd chapter in Dungeon Meshi volume 10.
So, 9 volumes plus two chapters. Alas, not a small amount. As a consolation, it’s a series well worth reading!
Even at that length and a slow pace I certainly can’t recommend against the plan of reading up to where it kicks off with the digital edition Harta, since it would mean more eyes on a great series and besides, Dungeon Meshi is what drove me to Harta. And there’s no rush!
Incidentally, I would definitely put the “rodan won’t be upset if you get to this point and still aren’t on board and step away, and also bets you’ll be bought in at this point and will zip through the rest” (that’s a general ‘you,’ not you specifically) point at a slightly less intimidating but still pretty hefty 4 volumes.
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Oh! I have access to a super secret elite source that was provided to me by a hacker who I paid to infiltrate the Harta servers and extract all the information.
But they bailed on me so instead I just went on Japanese wikipedia haha
I went through the table of contents and found each manga on the wikipedia page and wrote it all down. Its a very useful table, it also has those groups that you talked about (every issue vs every other issue)
I hope this helps!
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Ha, wow, thanks! That really is vastly more thorough than I would have assumed! I must never have scrolled down past the top of the page…
It’s always interesting how different languages of Wikipedia are also different in what specific exhaustive details they’re preoccupied with.
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I discovered this hack when I was working on Grand Jump. The English wikipedia is woefully out of date, and I needed more details to make my roadmap!
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Luckily, volumes 1 and 2 are currently free to read for a limited time on bookwalker! They can be, uh, free to keep if you use a certain bookwalker downloader script 
.
I’ll probably try giving those a shot at some point and see how it goes! The series looks to be a little on the harder end (for manga), sitting at a level 29 rating on Natively currently, but with Mokuro, that might turn out not too bad, I guess depending on where the difficulty is.
Regarding volume 75 of Harta, I did start reading it on a whim just to see how it goes. I ran it through Mokuro, which helps a lot, though I actually didn’t really need it for the first manga chapter, which was 青武高校あおぞら弓道部!
I’d never heard anything about that series before, haha, but I was blown away by how easy it was. I think it was even easier for me than most Yotsuba chapters. This is the most my pro wrestling vocab knowledge has ever come in handy for any non-wrestling thing, haha 
! I feel like there were like 5 words I didn’t know, and I understood all of them after looking them up just once.
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Epic, is that linked in the first post? I couldn’t find it!
Looking through these is a lot of fun, and I really want to join, but my kanji knowledge is lagging too far behind to understand enough 
gotta get my head down and press on with that. I’m just at ~350, which is tantalising in making me believe I’m approaching a useful range, but still sooooo far from being genuinely useful.
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Have you tried using Mokuro? It’s not perfect, so there might be times where you’d have to manually look up kanji, but it would probably make look-ups easy enough, kanji wouldn’t be a major obstacle anymore.
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Thanks for that. Maybe I’m being ridiculous, and I’ll have to break down and do that. What are my barriers (I’m asking myself…) So far I’ve been worried about sinking in way too much time messing around with all the steps to get that far, so I tell myself - just spend that time actually reading/learning kanji/grammar etc with resources I can already access easily, and I’ll get there faster in the end. And another secret part of me worries I’ll scupper any last shred of motivation to study kanji if I make kanji lookups too easy.
lol, I think that’s really it. that’s why I haven’t done it yet.
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It is now! 
I really… reallly wish I knew about this before my grand jump project haha. I knew about OCRs and the like, but in the Mokuro page it mentions that Jidoujisho does images?!?
I do most of my work on a chromebook so I had given up on OCR cause it was a hassle but like… Jidoujisho works on chromebooks…
Honestly it looks super helpful overall, but I might just stick with my slow method since it will make the actual reading process smoother for me. But I’ll give it a whirl!!
Thank you!!!
From my experience using a kindle for easy lookups during book clubs, it absolutely doesn’t! Because the study makes the reading faster, and the lookups help reinforce kanji from long ago that you might have forgotten!
Also, no pressure, but JOOOIIIIINNNNNN USSSSSSSS 
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Am I completely overwhelmed with the amount of book clubs I’m currently in? Yes
But do you guys make a really convincing case and now I’m dying to buy volume 75 and read along? Also yes
I’m having a big internal battle now, doesn’t help that the volumes are quite cheap… maybe I’ll just buy 1 or 2… we’ll see 
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I better get on the train then 
thank you and @fallynleaf
my thoughts exactly. gotta finish up my work for today and start having some fun with this, too.
Edit: ok, for $10 I made my first purchase on bookwalker, and by using various coupons and coins and other things I don’t quite understand, I eventually got issues 78-105! I guess for one last purchase of a fraction of a dollar I should just get 106, it didn’t quite go to the original plan because #100 was more expensive. I was thinking instead of reading across a magazine I’ll start with the easiest looking one that continues to the present that I was interested in: ホテル・メッツァペウラへようこそ Welcome to Hotel Metsäpeura (level 23).
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I bought all of the reduced issues of Harta from 75 on 
I will probably start reading in 1 to 2 weeks after I wrap up some of the book clubs.
Thanks for setting this thread up @SeanBones !!
And thanks @rodan again for that awesome write up for issue 75!! I will skip Dungeon Meshi and try to pick that up on the side soon 
Looking forward to reading along with everyone! 
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I read another one! I guess let me know if I should let someone else have the first say on one of these for once…
ハルタ ７６号
I think the main things to look forward to this issue are the debut of What Six Survivors Told, the romance reality show X zombie movie mash-up series that’ll be a reliable entertaining slot for the whole run of the magazine so far going forward, and a bunch of good 読切s from people with future series in the magazine!
Also uh, maybe worth mentioning but… you could maybe come away from 75 thinking large amounts of violence or nudity wouldn’t be in Harta… 76 not so much - it all just depends on the series!
Harta’s very non-specific targeting of series to age/gender means that while usually it’s pretty tame sometimes it’s less so.
A little bit on that topic, I imagine with a club like this certain series or stories may likely prove divisive or off-putting for different people just given the sheer volume of them in an issue of the magazine, if nothing else. I think in a weird way that’s also part of the fun of reading a manga magazine! The ‘you never know what you’re going to get’ factor - sometimes it’s just not to your taste at all! Even as enthusiastic as I am about Harta there’s some series in its run I actively dislike and others that I don’t mind but wouldn’t recommend broadly. (just a caveat to air in the nervous space before other people start posting their thoughts, haha)
I still think 100 yen per issue for these two is a definite steal, so still looking good on the pitchforks-front!
To potentially keep up with the pace of catching up with a series per old issue, I read the one volume of:
真柴姉弟は顔が固い
which like Laika’s Star in the last issue, debuts in this one. I think it’s really solid and fun!
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Thanks so much for the write-up! I’m a much slower reader, so I am thankful for these write-ups. It means I can go straight to what sounds like my vibe. And if someone writes another one, then all the more fun!
The 読切 sound cool. Thanks for highlighting those more this time! I hadn’t really pegged how fun those will be, so now I’m even more excited that I joined.
With the coin back, plus I found a 500 yen coupon, I ended up paying about 35 cents an issue. A penny per 30 pages or so! Thanks so much again you and @SeanBones
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There wasn’t anything in particular that grabbed me in Harta 75…but What Six Survivors Told is great so far…well worth the purchase and I’m glad a bought a bundle of them.
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HARTA 75
Wow, a long read to get through but a good one! Sorry it took so long to post, given the holidays and all. This write up will contain my raw initial thoughts, and so the details of which will be a bit brief. But after that I’ll highlight the ones I’m most interested in going forward!
Harta 75 Initial Thoughts
- Aozora Kyudo Club (Starts Harta volume 38, concludes on 80)
Oh man this is soooooo up my alley. I actually am a Kyudo practitioner when I’m not binging manga, so I already knew I was going to like this manga. I’ve done ranking exams, but never a school competition obviously, so it was cool seeing the things I already knew about and getting insight into how the school competition side of it works.
Gosh I love sports manga so much, and getting a nice female-centered sports manga that isn’t weird is a rarity. The art style is also absolutely perfect for me, showing really talented inkwork and expressive faces.
My only complaint about this manga is that its ending soon!!! I’m so sad!! I really want to go abc and read this from the beginning when I have time!
- Cuprum’s Bride (Starts on 74, is still publishing!)
I went back and read the first chapter of this in English to just give myself some context. This is a very nice and cute serious boy and cute gyaru-ish girl manga. I like how they are older, I’m a little tired of the high school romances, and that they go into engagement. Definitely a different type of pace, and one I’m here for! I’ll keep up with this nice little popcorn read.
- Yagi and the Sheep’s Crown (Starts 73, transfers to Aokishi in 80)
Its hard to get invested into manga that I know are ending/transfering soon, and I first felt that reading this manga. Despite only starting a few issues ago, I felt really lost on context/purpose while reading this, which honestly kind of tanked my motivation for this series.
- Tokyo Castle Girl’s High School Students (Start 45, conclude 81)
I don’t want to just say, ‘its really cute’ for a lot of these, but yeah this is just a nice cute and funny high school girl story, with great character interactions and dialogue. Will be sad to see this one go!
- Anri’s Shoes (Start 73, end 90)
This felt like it was made with the distilled essences of a Japanese drama. Like the energy of this manga is soooooooo modern-Japanese that I could literally picture the drama adaptation in my head. It was so formulaic and basic, I hope it picks up in future issues!
- Dance in the Evening Calm, My Ribbon (Start 57, end 78)
Wow holy shit that was tense. This is a super duper tense family drama with really clean art. Shame I’m coming in near the conclusion!
- Laika’s Star (Starts this issue! End 79)
UMMMMM WHAT DID I JUST READ? I feel like I was on drugs reading this. Honestly will need to do a few more passes for this my headspace is not ready right now haha.
- Friday’s Atelier (start 67 end 91)
Oh I’m a sucker for a manga about making art, this is about making apparel it seems? Really interesting, though I’m sure with more context I would be more into it!
- Hinamatsuri (Starts fellows 11, ends next volume!)
Skipped!
- Princess and the Shinobi (Special One-shot!)
At first I was going to skip this just cause it looked too cutesy and childish for me, and then HOLY COW. Really interesting world created in this one, with art that surprised the hell out of me!
- The Blue Eye of Horus: The Story of a Queen Dressed as a Man (Start 20, End 83)
Oh god this reminds me so much of Red Mudan from the Grand Jump read its crazy. I feel like I’ve jumped into a really critical moment!! I know I will love this if I go back and read it from the beginning, the setting is so rare in manga and I really really want to read more!
- Smoke and Honey (Start 59, Still Being Published!)
Oh this looks really really really really really interesting! I remember reading about this in Rodan’s current issue recap, and I was a little nervous going into it considering the subject matter. But the discussion he had with the soldier and the crisp digital art were not what I was expecting from this at all! This could turn sour for me but as of right now I really like it!
- Flower Shop Kid (Start 56, End 81)
Silly cute little yon-koma manga. I laughed a few times so all good by me!
- Immortal Hunting Dog (Start 6, End 79)
This looks really good but with no context I’m confused/not invested, and it seems like a lot of work to catch up to something that will end soon. I’ll skip this going forward.
- Far East Incident (Start 60, End 108)
More historical war manga!! Count me in! This looks much more what I am looking for period manga. I stopped reading halfway because I’m committed to catch up to it first!
- The Fourteen of the Nine Countries? (Start 66, End 89)
Yet another historical manga! A weird combination of gruesome and shonen lightheartedness? This is a strange one!
- Paper Thin Rin (Start 66, End 92)
Ummm… Alright. This exists…
- Primal Gods in Ancient Times (Start 67, Still Currently Running!)
One of the reasons I’m starting Harta! Skimmed through it but I know I want to catch up first before reading this. It looks so good!
- Sue-san (Start 37, End 93)
Oh the art in this is amazing!! And I really liked the story but I have no idea how it fits into anything. I want to learn more about this! Definitely will keep reading!
- Delicious in Dungeon (Start 11, End 107) (Also Anime Coming Jan 2024!)
SKIPPED! Want to read from the beginning!
- Toneriko (Special One Shot!)
Cute! Not much else to say haha!
- Migi and Dali (Start 46, End 89)
Okay. What the actual fuck did I just read? I need to see what everyone else thinks of this because I’m in shock its so weird what the hell
- Furo Run (Start 68, End 88)
Wow, great chapter and great art! Definitely a series I will keep reading! I’m so happy there is another girls-doing-sports manga in this series!
- Introduction to Minerology (Start 67, Still Ongoing!!)
A cute girls doing things manga, but with great background art and and with lots of education packed in! Will have to read again to get the details down better haha.
- Life of the Lottery Vengeful Ghost (Start 70, End 79)
Ummm, I don’t really have anything to say about this. Didn’t really like it that much tbh.
- Red Tsubaki (Start 64, Transferred to Aokishi in 80)
Umm this seems really interesting but I don’t understand the rules of the world at all! And its sadly getting transferred soon, but I’m really intrigued by it!
- The North-North-West Clouds Move (Start 32, Transferred to Aokishi in 80)
Another interesting story that is sadly getting transferred!
- Rekiyomi (Start 54, Transferred to Aokishi after this volume!)
Looks really good but its basically over!
- A Bride’s Story (Start in Fellows 1, Transferred to Aokishi in 80)
I’ve been wanting to read this for ages! Big award winner and it looks just as good as I hoped. Super duper sad this is getting transferred, the biggest bummer for me out of all of them
- B-Komachi! (Very weird anthology it looks like. Only one more after this one in 78)
Very short, very cute. Thats about it haha.
- Dan the Iron Robot (Start 65, End this issue!)
Ummm, seemed like not my thing tbh.
- Hakumei and Mikochi (Start Fellows 22, Still Publishing!)
Looks really really good but seems like I’ll have to catch up a lot to get the most out of it!
In the back I’m really really excited for 夏にビードロ and the Six Survivors!!
I am excited to go back and catch up on:
Primal Gods in Ancient Times
The Blue Eye of Horus: The Story of a Queen Dressed as a Man
d
The Far East Incident
Aozora Kyudo Club
And Delicious in Dungeon, though I’ll probably watch the anime first!
And I plan on continuing to focus on:
Cuprium’s Fiance
Smoke and Honey
Furo Run
Introduction to Minerology
Sue-san
Now that I’m finished I can read everyone else’s thoughts. And if people are interesting in hearing more details about a specific manga just ask!
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Volume 75 discussion!
For volume 75, I find it interesting you say that it feels so Aokishi-ish. I’m not super interested the series that will go to Aokishi (aside from Bride’s Story), so this is probably better for my enjoyment of the magazine haha. I’m really interested in how the magazine will change, since around volume 80 a ton of series finish/get transfered to Aokishi.
While I enjoyed thils volume, knowing that a big overhaul was coming definitely kept me from getting into some series, since I knew that they wouldn’t be part of the journey for long. I think what I’m most excited for with this project is when manga get their first chapter in the volume I’m reading. Reading a lot of series from their beginning in the magazine is such a different experience from how I normally catch up with manga so I’m looking forward to it!
Really excited for Six Survivors and Teito Kage Monogatari in upcoming volumes!!
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Well no pressure, but we would love to have you!
The great thing about having a backlog of magazines is that there should definitely be a few manga that justify the purchase, and if you don’t want to read the other manga in the issue you don’t have to! Also I’m in the same boat with the too many book clubs.
Super duper glad to hear it!!! Welcome aboard!!!
No problem! Happy to have you!! No worries at all about pace or even reading the full issue, read what you enjoy and skip anything that doesn’t vibe with you!
I am literally so excited for Six Survivors that I might just read 76 today as well! Glad to hear its good and worth the purchase!
I’m so so so so happy people are getting into this!!! I’ll try to have another issue read and posted about this week, but I also need to do Grand Jump and not neglect the other thread!
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This looks cute, and since I only missed one chapter I’m thinking about reading it … Where did you read the first chapter in English? I found it here in Japanese, but the image quality is low and I think I might be missing a lot of cultural context? I’m not sure, I just don’t know what is happening at all.
P.S. If it’s something that involves torrents then I might be plenty happy with just a quick summary!
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