Do you know how many volumes/chapters we’d need to read before Harta 75 to catch up on those series? ハクメイとミコチ looks like exactly my jam, haha, so I’m considering treating it the same way as Dungeon Meshi and catching up on both before I leap into volume 75 of Harta… 峠鬼 also looks interesting.
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Sure!
ハクメイとミコチ is probably currently the longest-running Harta series? Harta 75 has chapter 74 it looks like, which appears to be the first chapter in volume 10, so volumes 1-9 would be what it would take to catch up. It’s definitely not critical to do so in the same way it is for Dungeon Meshi though - it’s worth it to get to know the many and varied side characters, but it’s predominantly slice of life through and through with no direct plotline.
For 峠鬼, it looks like Harta 75 has chapter 12, and that’s the first chapter of volume 4, so it appears volumes 1-3 would be required to catch up. And that’s one series that is definitely best to be caught up to speed to understand what’s going on.
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Harta day again already!
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Welp, I got covid for the first time ever and it seriously kicked (and continues to kick) my butt. At least I’m finally well enough to read again! So without further ado …
Issue #82
新連載
ふくふく万福帳 by 伊藤 有生 (いと ゆせい)
Ooh, this is exciting! I read and really enjoyed the yomikiri, now it’s getting turned into a series! Curious to see what happens. Guessing the title means something along the lines of “diary/notebook of ten thousand happinesses” …
I tried to look for a collected volume of this, but I don’t think it exists …
あかねさす柘榴の都 by 福浪 優子 (ふくなみ ゆこ)
The handwritten editorial comment at the beginning of this one tried to throw me for a loop, but I just copied the scribbles as exactly as I could and my dictionary could handle it! Go takoboto go!
Curious to see how this one progresses … the art is totally gorgeous. Makes me wonder about the mangaka’s connection to Andalusia.
ガラスの瞳で覗かせて by 井上 きぬ (いのうえ きぬ)
Hmm, creepy … Terrifying. Hilariously terrifying.
３号限定再録企画
★ききみみ図鑑 by 宮田 紘次 (みやた こうじ)★
So this is a sad story. This is a brilliant mangaka who died too young and they’re reprinting some of their stories in this and the next two issues. Just read a couple pages and it’s already so good.
Finished, (although, only skimmed the two pages at the end talking about the mangaka). Super good. I’m not sure if next issue will continue the same story, or be another short story related to music.
読切
節食のすゝめ by 牧野 康平 (まきの こうへい)
Title is probably a reference to 学問のすゝめ?
I originally thought from the title page image that it was going to be more about the joy of eating? It was kinda cute but … not super impactful.
タナトローム by 犬島 ななこ (いぬしま ななこ)
My thought process on this one:
Okay, it’s gonna take a minute to get through this news broadcast infodump in the first two pages.
“Great invention makes euthanasia fun”. Okay. Let’s do this.
Nope. I take it back. Let’s not do this.
★魔王 by 野町 達也 (のまち たつや)★
Huh. I feel like I don’t totally get it, but I also loved it. Great art, great characters, fun shenanigans … Not sure why it had to end the way it did, but that’s okay.
I wonder if this mangaka goes on to do anything else? Couldn’t find anything with a quick amazon search, but they could have changed pen names, or I could have typo’d it, etc etc.
★しろくて、ふわふわ by 小林 愛 (こばやし あい)★
Super cute. An encounter with a surly stuffed animal artist helps a meek office worker learn to be more assertive!
どうして歌ってくれないの？ by よしかわ さとこ
I got covid in the middle of this story, which I’m sure detracted from my reading experience. I feel kind of bad that I lost faith in this story somewhere in there. It’s actually very cute in the end! Maybe there was a slight pacing issue, but it’s impossible to tell if that pacing issue was in the story or in my real life when I had no brainpower (or other power for that matter) for a whole week.
裸足のマジカルホームタウン by 木原 悠里子 (きはら ゆりこ)
Huh! I didn’t expect or really want to like this story. I don’t love it when stories open with a bullying scene, so that put me off, but I forged ahead because I wanted to get through this issue once and for all. And even though I also don’t love cult stories, this one kinda really grew on me, and in the end I really liked it.
ショートショート
★仏さまが見てる by 松本 水星 (まつもと すいせい)★
Wow, I … have no idea what that was, but it definitely makes me want to know more about this mangaka! The title page plugged their series 燕のはさみ, so I will probably buy volume one at least …
If anyone can explain the last two panels to me, please do. Particularly the significance of the sign? I don’t know if it’s just the brain fog or what, but I feel like I missed the punch line somehow.
連載
生き残った６人によると by 山本和音 （やまもとかずね）
Lol, this story is so weird. If it were any less stylized I definitely wouldn’t be able to read it, and even though it is stylized sometimes it makes me feel a little nauseous but I also kind of really like it??? So weird.
★夜の名前を呼んで by 三星たま★
The physical volume arrived just in time for me to read this last chapter on paper. Feels strange to have had the book in my hands less than an hour before I put it on the “finished” shelf, though!
I believe I originally was going to come back and write some thoughts on this story as metaphor for depression, but then I got sick and now I no longer have thoughts. 
So I’ll just say: it’s cute!
クプルムの花嫁 by namo
I can’t really remember this chapter too well right now, unfortunately, and I didn’t write much of anything about it when I first read it. Oh well.
先生、今日どうですか by 高江洲 弥 (たかえすやや)
This series is (also) so weird. But this was kind of a cute chapter.
ことり文書 by 天野 実樹 (あまの みき)
Cute!
ホテルメッツァペウラへようこそ by 福田星良 (ふくたせいら)
Huh. Jun’s backstory was a bit different from how I expected … (He just got the tattoos to emulate his mentor…??) … and this chapter was a lot more violent than I expected … (I get that they’re men’s men or whatever but hitting someone in the head because you’re worried about them when they just woke up from being knocked out cold? Seems like it goes a bit far…)
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THERE’S A READER FEEDBACK SECTION??? I’m definitely going to start reading that.
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Sorry about the covid!! Glad you’re doing okay under the circumstances!
Sadly, yeah, that one is the only (not announced to be specifically short term) series that I can remember from reading Harta that ends after around the length of a volume but never ends up getting collected for whatever reason, which always seemed like a sad outcome to me.
I think they’ve done a few more shorts for Harta since then but that’s it - one of the first authors I remember happily recognizing from an earlier story I particularly enjoyed! I’d certainly welcome if more work from them materialized in the future.
I think the sign is saying like roughly, “wrap it up! There’s another gig (that we should get going to)” and it’s the nun from before, showing that now she’s become his manager, putting another modernized twist on the monk/demon the story’s playing with.
And the last panel is a religious sentiment (like “God/The Buddha is watching over you/me/us”) that I think works in context as the closing line since it also alludes to how the Buddhist nun watching over him is what presumably has led to a successful pop music career.
Looking over at it, personally I interpret it more as like – he wound up on the wrong side of the law / in yakuza circles because he looked up to his mentor and wanted to be like him. And his tattoos being so extensive now is probably a sign of how far he ended up going down that road at some point (since they’re yakuza tattoos and you get them done over time).
So like, yes but with a step in between. 
Yep! It’s the first of the text portions in the back. The マンガの語り場. Along with reader responses to a previous issue, there’s answers to an unrelated little questionnaire from the reader survey. (When I’ve looked at them) they’re generally brief and innocuously positive (rather than like a full letter column) but they’re definitely fun to look at sometimes and imagine the other readers out there!
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Harta 78
Wow, 久しぶり！Glad to be back on!! Due to a combination of Mokuro being uncooperative and my own laziness/focus on other projects, it took me longer than expected to get back on. Not wanting to belabor it, I gave more surface level reactions to get my going so I would stop procrastinating.
Oh Oh Oh Oh, Also I’ve been reading Dungeon Meshi, so hopefully I’ll be caught up on that one soon, and can keep reading it via the magazines!!
Reactions/Spoilers
Full Disclosure, my display was weird, so I was so confused because the table of contents told me the first manga was Horus, and all of the sudden its a mermaid manga and my brain is just thinking, ‘What the hell happened to this Egyptian manga?!?!’, but then I looked back and realized my mistake lol.
Sinner in Seabed: Ummm holy shit this is a feast for the eyes!!
And so many more! Visually stunning, a bit of a teaser chapter, going for spectacle for now. That said, I’m super okay with that!!!
Call the name of the night: Very cute, seems very very very Harta, I remember chapter 1 having some darker elements. Will this continue to be a ball of fluff? Only one way to find out!!
Hotel: I remember reading about this from the current write up, a couple of people seemed really hype about it, and now I can see why! Its a very smooth read, and has a bit of lightheartedness, but a taste of mystery as well. Finland is also such a rare setting, excited to keep exploring more!
Sensei: Yep I definitely think I’m getting less okay with the premise, shame the art is so damn good though!!
Napkin: What the fuck did I just read?!?
Teito: Yeah, just lost all interest honestly. I was looking forward to it with the setting but I’m kind of out now…
Six Survivors: Oooohhhh, the plot thickens!!
Machi: WHY IS THIS NOT A SERIES?!?!?!?!?! UGH I WOULD LOVE TO KEEP READING IT!!
Coppersmith: One of the more educational chapters I think, most of it went over my head I’ll be honest. But the couple couple moments at the end made it worth it!
Smoke and Honey: Is this the first chapter in the school? If so, I hope it keeps up!
Bino: Well… that was… really fucking creepy…
Far-East: Plot picked up for a bit but I’m not sure about how this series will continue. Last chapter was really hype, will it go back to more relaxed stories or make it a bit more interesting??
Obligatory Migi to Dali weird-ass image:
Mountain God: I had already read this in English by mistake. Still really good!
I’ll go through and catch up on reactions and such tomorrow, sorry again for the delay!!
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Yeah, agreed. 
Poor 豆福!
Ah!, thanks, that helps!
That makes sense. I think the references to his past were so dark before (eg he has a head wound, but is only worried about the wine bottles that got broken), that I just didn’t expect him to have had anyone supportive in his life. So then I got confused when this memory seemed kind of positive (aside from the whole murder thing).
Ah, same! It’s a shame cause I love the art and the setting.
I love how Harta is like 
omg, adorable, so cute … … … omg SO DARK terrifying creepy! … … … also adorable! and pretty!
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Harta stuff goes on sale enough on Bookwalker (considering Kadokawa owns both and all) that probably I don’t need to mention it here every time? But there’s a pretty juicy discount+coin combo at the moment.
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I appreciate the nudges, it saves a lot of money to time purchases to these mega sales
I updated the spreadsheet column J with the number of volumes preceding Harta #75 to catch up on for some interesting continuing series for anyone looking for that.
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Kadokawa’s discounting stuff still, so there’s another set of discounted Harta manga. For those starting or planning to start with the magazine at 75, I think the relevant ones are:
碧いホルスの瞳 -男装の女王の物語-
青武高校あおぞら弓道部
夕凪に舞え、僕のリボン
and maybe (I forget):
アンリの靴
九国のジュウシ
also most of ライカの星 is in 75-77 or so, and in the Harta Alta one-shot, but there’s some stuff exclusive to the standalone edition too, and I was glad to have it.
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The year trundles along, doesn’t it! Here’s another new Harta!
Also, a few notes for the first volumes from a concluded Harta series, and a series that moved to 青騎士, respectively, why not.
ヒナまつり （１）
乙嫁語り （１）
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Issue #83
Issue summaries are more fun with pictures, so starting now I’m going to add a bunch of screenshots! I tried not to post anything ultra-spoilery, but wanted to warn you all just in case.
Oh man, it’s almost June and I’ve only read eight nine issues! That is a faster pace than they are coming out at least though, so I’ll call it good.
新連載
虎は龍をまだ食べない。 by 一七八 ハチ (いなば はち)
Meh. The dragon boy is cute …
But other than that … There were a couple things that made me want to hard-pass.
★涙子さまの言う通り by 山本 ルンルン★
Oh. Wow. Okay. Um. Wow.
That was unexpectedly creepy and disturbing particularly given how sort of comic-y and cute the drawing style is? And also a surprisingly quick read for how long it is. And I’m also surprisingly into it given how much I’m usually not into really violent things. Expectations broken on every spectrum.
読切
★管理二課の一日 by 宇野山 むじ (うのやま)★
Whaaaat …?? Tempted to reread right away. Did she make the apartment different for him? Was that a coincidence? Did he get transferred to the ghost division because they realized something about him when he said what he said in the meeting? What?
I really liked this one. (And I really like his new boss.)
★ヤギとぎょしゃ座と流星と by 大家ちひろ★
The connection between the two stories felt pretty loose, and it made me antsy to be constantly going back and forth between them. But I did really like both of them and the art style. So I might go back someday and read it again (knowing what’s coming will probably make me less antsy.) Maybe we’ll see more from this artist in the future! * fingers crossed *
連載
クプルムの花嫁 by namo
Skip for now because … I ordered the physical volumes!!! I’m just pretty confident that I will enjoy this one at least twice as much if I’m reading it on paper. It’s a little inconvenient that the medium affects my enjoyment so much, but oh well. I’m still happy to have digital copies of Harta because 1) it would take up SO MUCH SPACE if they were all physical and 2) it would have cost me hundreds of dollars more probably. Also, for learning purposes, having the option to zoom way in is extremely helpful. (That said, once I get through the digital copies I got for super cheap, I do hope to switch to physical magazines. I’ll cross that storage hurdle once I get to it.)
On the other hand, I do love when I get to a full two-page illustration reading digital, it is so much nicer not to have it bifurcated. Augh! How will I ever choose!?
先生、今日どうですか by 高江洲 弥 (たかえすやや)
I liked this chapter a lot! I loved the knitting plotline, and I like the neighbor who gets really uncomfortable around Murasaki and Sensei, because I relate to that lol, but also just enjoy that character.
Adding this last screenshot largely because of what she’s standing on … in the 気になってる人は男じゃなかった book club someone noticed a character standing on a piece of newspaper in order to check her outfit + shoes in the mirror …
あかねさす柘榴の都 by 福浪 優子 (ふくなみ ゆこ)
Interesting… The mangaka is using a technique I like, where they just drop you into a situation without explaining it. It’s confusing, but interesting! Very nice art, though I feel like it’s noticeable that this mangaka is probably not super experienced yet. Anyway, really enjoying Spain through the perspective of a Japanese main character with Spanish heritage (but who seems not to be super familiar with Spanish culture).
★夜の名前を呼んで by 三星たま (みつぼしたま)★
Great chapter.
★ふくふく万福帳 by 伊藤 有生 (いと ゆせい)★
Aw, I loved this chapter! I really love the main character. And the character design of the little happiness gods.
I’m sad this series never got collected into a volume, but on the other hand, super happy that I am reading Harta and getting to enjoy manga that I definitely never would have had access to before!
Also, here, have some kitties.
アビスアジュールの罪人 by 冨 明仁 (とみ あきひと)
This was a pretty fun chapter. I think action sequences suit this artist’s style. And I like the little world-building touches around mermaids, like that they have a good sense of smell (because you can’t see anything in the deep sea) and bioluminescent hair (so cool).
ガラスの瞳で覗かせて by 井上 きぬ (いのうえ きぬ)
Once I got into it, it was a pretty quick read. Weird. Cute.
… but when do I get to read 生き残った６人によると?
★ホテルメッツァペウラへようこそ by 福田星良 (ふくたせいら)★
Probably my favorite chapter so far; I adore the “tough guys paired with adorable children” trope, so Jun and these little girls (in their adorable viking-esque get-up!) was pure joy.
生き残った６人によると by 山本和音 （やまもとかずね）
Not bad. It doesn’t feel like a ton happened this chapter. I feel like maybe I’m addicted to the art style somehow. 
３号限定再録企画
★ききみみ図鑑 by 宮田 紘次 (みやた こうじ)★
Pretty!
So good! Love that feeling when a story starts out not making sense at all, then resolves into making perfect sense by the end. Also, the editorial note at the end was perfect, because it prompted me to google around and I found this video:
https://youtu.be/lgme4gUk7Hc?si=I-Vz3m80qKD8zDvG
This one is also really cool: https://youtu.be/jfVxtCLkV4c?si=I5NVI5IDeqYqNlV5
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Issue #84
新連載 / Series Debuts
シャッター街のさくら姫 by 宮本 怜美 (みやもと れいみ)
Not as strong a start as I was expecting … But I feel like this one has a lot of potential.
Also, I could seriously relate to this:
読切 / Shorts
the first one, don't remember what it's called
Wow, 80 pages! My first instinct on flipping through the first couple pages was “I don’t want to read this”, so I decided to check @rodan’s review and I am SO GLAD THAT I DID. I would have been fairly sad if I’d read the first few (wordy) pages before realizing how uncomfortable the art was going to be, and extremely sad if I had pushed past it thinking “but it’s Harta, it will still be good!” before getting to the extremely weird porny parts. (I started to flip through it, until the weird porny parts made me so uncomfortable that I decide to hard-skip it.)
Thank you @rodan!
多面体の僕ら by 久方 標 (ひさかた しるべ)
It was okay. I liked the point that the mangaka was making, but I almost definitely wouldn’t have finished reading it if it had been any longer than it was.
四十九日のお終いに by 田沼 朝 (たぬま あさ)
I feel like I understood around 75 percent. It was good. Understated, quiet, interesting. I think this is the one Rodan really likes? And I think I can see why. 
I really like the art style too.
バスジャック二度としない by 西田 心 (にしだ こころ)
Cute. I’m not sure I understood what the boy said about her that was so bad though.
ショートショート
連載 / Continuing Series
涙子さまの言う通り by 山本 ルンルン
Auuugh!!! Really enjoying this one. Except that the torture and implied murder of animals caught me off guard and was very horrible. It definitely upset me way more than that girl getting murdered at the beginning. But other than that haha. I like our main detective a lot. I feel like he would also be more horrified by Namidako murdering animals than by her murdering humans.
生き残った６人によると by 山本和音 （やまもとかずね）
This mangaka is really good at fun action sequences. I’m less clear on what’s going on with the story. I mean, I’m following it fine, it’s just not clear to me what kind of story they are trying to write. It seems a bit … unfocused, I guess. Still fun though.
クプルムの花嫁 by namo
Easier chapter than the last one. (Seems like the tourist infotainment-y ones are the hardest.) Also, super cute.
ふくふく万福帳 by 伊藤 有生 (いと ゆせい)
Cute. Love the reversal here … since he’s earned a reward, his reward is to not be unlucky for once so that he can achieve his goal.
先生、今日どうですか by 高江洲 弥 (たかえすやや)
meh. It’s a little sad, if the main character was just a little bit older, like say she was a 20-year-old managing the property for her parents, I feel like I could be so into this one.
夜の名前を呼んで by 三星たま (みつぼしたま)
(I love all the little details, like this door.)
Having fever dreams when you’re a sorcerer is dangerous!
最終回 / Last Chapters!
ガラスの瞳で覗かせて by 井上 きぬ (いのうえ きぬ)
Cute! I started out completely weirded out, but now find the doll/human relationships totally cute.
At the end they said if you want to see it continue then send a letter. Maybe someday I’ll be reading in real time and can actually send a letter if I want to see a particular story continue!
Looks like 井上 きぬ has a two-volume manga series out, but I think it was published in Harta before issue 75, not after.
ききみみ図鑑 by 宮田 紘次 (みやた こうじ)
Definitely my least favorite of the three. Not that it was bad, it just wasn’t my favorite.
Wait, there’s more!
Aaaah—almost missed the contest winners!
They add up to another 140 pages of yomikiri. It does feel slightly overwhelming to think I’m ready to move on to the next issue only to discover I have another 6 yomikiri to go. And they look good too, I don’t want to skip them! This makes me look forward to the time when I have to wait between issues and have at least a month to read every little thing before the next issue. Right now I’m reading in a very goal-oriented way, which keeps me moving forward and is great for studying, improving, and catching up, but I’m looking forward to the more leisurely just-for-fun approach which I know is in my future.
Okay, so, read about the contest/contest winners. Seems like in a way they’re getting us ready for the change of format that’s about to happen in the next issue. It also seems like there will be seven new series starting (contest winners). (“Contest” makes it sound like the entries are from a bunch of amateurs, but I don’t think that’s the case. Not sure what else to call it though.)
So, 13 contest winners total, 6 are yomikiri printed in this issue, 7 are new series starting next issue.
傘に関する考察 by 古田 青葉
Super cute.
あいつの螺子はゆるんでいる by 寿薙 ひさなぎ えりき
Ultra cute. Loved it.
こちら、エスタブリカ市役所です。
I loved this one! I hope we see this mangaka again!
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少年探偵冥司郎の嬉戯
Haha, you’re very welcome. I’m glad someone’s safely gotten past that series turning up, since I’ve had in the back of my mind a little “uh oh getting a bunch of people to be interested in reading Harta back issues also technically means I’ll be showing that one series to a bunch of strangers huh…” type worry since this thread started forming. Definitely my least favorite Harta thing I’ve read so far, and such a weird outlier stylistically. I think I did eventually buy the first collected volume on sale to someday see if it makes more sense to me why it’s like that reading carefully and from the start but… I doubt it.
四十九日のお終いに by 田沼 朝 (たぬま あさ)
I feel like I understood around 75 percent. It was good. Understated, quiet, interesting. I think this is the one Rodan really likes? And I think I can see why.
Oh, huh! That’s the author I really like, but I actually never realized that particular short was in the Harta issues I read. It must not have registered to me at the time. It’s a later short from Tanuma (and the one after that) that puts her on my radar.
I think this one even when I read it (or reread it, apparently) in collected form I felt like I needed to sit with it and work to understand it a bit more, so maybe years ago when still not necessarily 100% used to reading Harta I had enough trouble with it to not engage with it much. I got the impression last I looked back at my notes from the time too I was actively trying to catch up to the latest issues around this time.
八咫烏杯 contest winners
Yeah honestly, as time went on I tended to end up egregiously skimming the Yatagarasu Hai winners more often than not, especially if it came at the end of a day of reading through the whole magazine in a big chunk. I think they’re probably not edited to be paced for a magazine as much as full-on shorts, and they’re also posted free on Harta’s website so it’s at least not missing out on magazine-specific content if skipped/skimmed… but they do deserve attention so I always feel a little guilty doing that.
I don’t think this is quite right - the 7 that aren’t in this issue are also shorts. The 次号以降掲載予定 is just trying to say that those ones will each be published in some following issue and not this one. Looks like they end split between 85 and 86.
About whether the contest winners are amateurs or not, in my head at some point I’d gotten to assuming not having professionally debuted was part of the contest rules but nope, I was wrong:
年齢、性別、国籍、プロ・アマ問いません。
ただし、投稿作品は商業誌未発表のオリジナル作品に限ります。
So you’re right, it is indeed a mix.
It’s interesting that the first Yatagarasu Hai results show up almost at the same time as the new cover illustration style by Katsu Somehira! I definitely associate both very strongly with Harta going forward.
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Not quite as punctual as I had been for a bit, but I’ve got notes on June’s Harta:
As well as on two anime adaptations of Harta manga:
ハクメイとミコチ
ダンジョン飯
July is one of the two off months, so I guess I spent part of it early!
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Issue #85
Happy days, I finally finished issue 85!!! It partly took me so long because I traveled a lot in July.
I found it kind of annoying/disconcerting that I couldn’t tell from the table of contents how many new series and yomikiri there were. I like to check on that when I’m starting to read an issue. But it seems like they (at least partially) fix that going forward.
新連載 / Series Debuts
希釈王 by 須川 佳 (すがわ けい)
A bit frustrating and not sure this is actually a language problem, might just be a confusing one. The whole first three quarters I thought the main character was an elementary school child (she’s got the little hat, and when talking on the phone she asked if the other character was still at work, and said お母さん頑張って) only to discover near the end that she’s the mother?? Also there’s a multi-page prelude with very little indication that any of it has anything to do with the actual story. And there’s just oddly confusing things thrown in.
I guess I wouldn’t be upset about all that if I didn’t care about the story. It occasionally does a good job showing what it feels like to be discriminated against and/or simply not accounted for. And the world is weird and interesting. I like the theme, but it feels really awkwardly done.
(skipped) インク色の欲を吐く by 梅ノ木 びの
The themes of this one don’t appeal to me at all.
読切 / Shorts
にせ猫の探しかた by 池袋 万里 (いけぶくろ まり)
It was okay. Still no idea what the title page is supposed to represent …
光の小指 by 竹本 明梨 (たけもと あかり)
So happy I read this one! I didn’t love the art (at all), but read my requisite couple pages anyway, and the characters really appealed to me and in the end I really liked the story. Yay!
(No, there’s no mistake in that image.)
八咫烏杯 やたがらすはい
Or, championship of the legendary three-legged crow
或る夫婦 by 朱 依村 (よりむら あけ)
I had a pretty hard time following some parts, but I got the gist, and it was cute and sweet.
Juice by のがみ もゆこ
Weird. And short. Not much to comment on.
夜の占い by 高砂 美海 (たかさご みあ)
The female character was annoying, but I liked the illustration style and the world-building and … pretty much everything else.
by 飯坂 アオイ (いいさか あおい)
Ack! Can’t do it. It was surprisingly dense and the boys’ conversation was already hard to follow, then they started using all these kanji words with furigana that my dictionary didn’t know … maybe they were names but either way I couldn’t follow a thing. I flipped through to the end where it turned into a 4-koma, which I did not dare attempt.
連載 / Continuing Series
ことり文書 by 天野 実樹 (あまの みき)
Heart-meltingly cute!!!
Shiraishi had a tough day.
So Kotori tries to cheer him up. Nothing works until she gives him a shoulder massage.
Then she gives him this!
司書正 by 丸山 薫 (まるやま かおる)
Just a short chapter this time, and won’t resume again until issue 87! Pretty.
生き残った６人によると by 山本和音 （やまもとかずね）
Liked this chapter a lot, but not really sure what was going on at the end with Renren. I guess maybe he came back as a zombie? And then collapsed? Not sure why he would die a second time without having to be killed though. And if he was just mortally wounded why would he have said he just died earlier? Am I just a little stupid today, or were the last two chapters (this one and 希釈王) really confusing?
シャッター街のさくら姫 by 宮本 怜美 (みやもと れいみ)
Yes! Loved this chapter! In my head-canon Sakurada is definitely the main character of this manga, and it’s told from the perspective of the secondary character. (This might be true outside of my head-canon too.)
アビスアジュールの罪人 by 冨 明仁 (とみ あきひと)
What’s with this super casual sexual assault at the end??? !
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I understand your reasoning, but like you said, it’s definitely an outlier stylistically so I wouldn’t really consider it to be part of what you’re recommending when you recommend Harta. In anything that is a compilation or anthology there’s likely to be outliers in both good and less-good ways, so it kind of just comes with the territory in my opinion.
I think I may end up in the same boat. They feel like more of a wild card than regular yomikiri, and as you mentioned (with regards to that Tanuma Asa short) it can be a little hard to focus on the shorts when you’re thinking about catching up to all the series. (I’m not trying to catch up on series that started before issue 75 at the moment, but I would like to get current someday, lol.)
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Ah you got me excited about these all over again!
How are you reading these, straight through? And you put in so many screen shots which is amazing for discussion, are you just starting a comment here and then gradually adding to it until you finish the volume?
I want that shirt!
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Yeah, the table of contents format in this issue looks jarringly like a first pass looking back (congratulations on making it all the way to the redesign!) as the format I’m well familiar with by now is like this but more condensed, always on two pages, cleaner, spiffier, and highlights 読み切り and 新連載, (and even in the most recent issue, concluding series).
希釈王 by 須川 佳 (すがわ けい)
I think I see what happened!
The part of the phone exchange with the お母さん頑張って is:
character: あんたまだ仕事中やろ？
voice on phone: あー…まあそうやけど
character: じゃあお母さんひとりで頑張ってみよかな～
voice on phone: ええーっ
In this, じゃあお母さんひとりで頑張ってみよかな～ means, I would say, unambiguously like, “Well, then I think I’ll try to handle it (i.e. make my way to you) on my own!” (while also establishing that she’s the mother of the character she’s talking to on the phone).
The mother has arrived early to this city traveling from Kansai, by train or somesuch, and since she’s arrived quite early, the daughter who was going to pick her up is still at work and worries whether her mom will be able to get to her on her own (since she’s a tiny gnome in a big city that’s very different from whatever she’s used to in Kansai).
It’s a lot of exposition packed into a short exchange with some inference along the way, and with the character design and the magazine’s little blurb just saying 母娘, the initial assumption taking hold and surviving through the small misunderstanding makes sense!
希釈王 is definitely a very unusual series! I confess personally I kinda love it for that, but I would forecast that the trouble to stay grounded in it and the mixed feeling around what all is thrown in may continue .
For the prelude, I would say that it’s obliquely establishing the themes of the series - that it’s a series about the kinds of anxieties we have around the modern world and in modern Japan, but expressed in this odd world overstuffed with fantasy creatures and races. Here in our world and in this one the series is set in, we mourn that kids growing up today may not acquire memories of fireflies in the way that was once near-universal, but in this world that then has “yeah it’s probably been decades since the association between fireflies and summer changed over to will-o-the-wisps and summer.” Or someone might casually say “yeah the kappas all died out back in 1991…” or “it’s sad how invasive fish species have wrecked local ecosystems. Now lakes are full of just loch ness monsters…”
That kind of like, the concern and the way of speaking about it is casual and routine to the world we know, it’s just the details that are bizarre and fantastical (in a deadpan way that isn’t going to be acknowledged by the text), is probably the core of what the series is doing (and what may make it extra difficult to interpret).
生き残った６人によると by 山本和音 （やまもとかずね）
Zombies in this series don’t tend to talk! I would say that he’s having a dramatic movie moment, where he is aware that he is definitely going to die (presumably having been bit) but has this important thing he wants to do first - pass on the leadership of the group, which he manages to do before collapsing (of e.g. blood loss). I would say that he just phrased it like that (さっき死んだんだけど) because it sounds cool written that way, and to emphasize the certainty, I don’t think it’s literal.
(I don’t remember the surrounding context other than the specific bit I reread to answer though)
P.S. not a big deal at all since it certainly comes with the territory one way or another when discussing these - but I think it is probably best to spoiler mark discussion of big plot beats even within the details-drop-down, just for the sake of any reckless rubberneckers .
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