A Harta-ful of Manga: Let's Read a Magazine Together ❣

[mitrac]

At long last, I’m diving into the exciting worlds of Harta!!

Harta #75

This is my Harta #75 home post. I started this post after reading the shorter of the 2 one shots, トネリコ, and posting questions, below.

I’ll add more notes and links to future posts at the bottom as I explore the rest of the issue.

one shot: トネリコ p 576

Definitely read it first before looking at my questions. I had some major misunderstandings as you’ll see in the discussion that followed. There’s not much context in a one shot, so it was tougher than I was expecting. But the discussion that followed gave me ideas for new strategies to try and I’m excited to tackle the next (longer) one shot.

questions

I interpreted the story as a child and their mom? But maybe it’s two roommates. I’ll call them Sleepy (the dark haired girl) and Moby (the kid/ roommate)

**

It’s meant to be cute, but isn’t this prank really mean?

Pulling the covers off Sleepy and then sitting silently watching her freak out about her lost day off until she figures out it’s the middle of the night. Or am I misinterpreting that?

**

Then after Moby goes back to bed, I was at a loss for how to interpret the square text. Is it narration? But it’s written first person.

My translation would be: “because I’m weak in the morning, I don’t want to destroy my daily rhythm.” I’m not sure what it’s getting at here.

**

OK, moving on, Moby smells yummy food that Sleepy is cooking and comes downstairs. It’s the middle of the night. But what is going on visually? Sleep throws Moby some meat? And Moby freaks out? And then something about I cook it and you smell it?

I’m thinking the one shots might not have been the easiest place to start after all. Without any context for the characters, I’m struggling to parse the speech and art

additional Harta #75 reading

Harta 75 - January 2025 update - notes on what I started reading in Harta without doing any catch-up. That post includes:

• ライカの星 Ch 1 / Laika’s star (new series)
• 姫と忍 / The Princess and the Ninja (one-shot)
• 紙一重りんちゃん Ch 14 / Paper thin Rin (stand alone story from a series that is normally 4koma)
• Dungeon Meshi (continuing series - I decided to catch-up before continuing)

Anything else I’m either catching up with later (below) or skipping (lists further below):

notes on continuing series / catching up

Caught up:

👖 昴とスーさん / The Strange Life of Subaru

I am enjoying this series immensely and recommend reading this from the beginning (Harta 75 has Ch 24 - which is in Volume 4) to fully appreciate the unfolding mystery.

• Volume 1- Jan 2025 - see catchup notes section in Harta 75 post
• Volume 2 - Ch 7-10 Feb 2025 - see catchup notes section in Harta 76 post
• Volume 2 Ch 11-12 Feb 2025 - see catchup notes section in Harta 77 post
• Volume 3-4 Harta 75-78 Ch 13-26 Mar 2025 - see catchup notes section in Harta 78 post

アンリの靴 / Anri a Shoemaker - Feb 2025 - see catchup notes section in Harta 77 post

🗺 Continuing series I still intend to catch up on

I’m catching up with one series at a time. I’m looking forward to trying the following (of the は and る series). Other series (た) whose first digital issue is in Harta 76 will be in that post (scroll down 2 posts).

• ハクメイとミコチ (This looks so cute! There are 9 volumes preceding Harta 75 which starts at Ch 74. I’ll read vol 1 before deciding how much catch-up I want to do before following it in Harta)
• 碧いホルスの瞳: Harta 75 starts at chapter 35, so there are perhaps 5 volumes before Harta 75.
• Dungeon Meshi - Harta 75 starts at Ch 65 (middle of Vol 10)
• 峠鬼: I don’t see a chapter name at Harta 75 or 77. Based on the frequency of publication, there are probably 5 chapters (which would be volume 1) to catch up on, but at level 35 I’m not expecting it to be in range soon.

…

🙈 skipping

I’m skipping the following for now - sorry I’ve copied the English names from SeanBones since that was easier and I’m not invested in these. Very possibly a higher level of Japanese would have changed some decisions.

I might reevaluate later

Aozora Kyudo Club - the art is gorgeous! I’m not invested enough to catch up and read more, especially as it’s ending soon, but if I’m looking for a sports manga later I’ll consider it.

Migi and Dali - linking to some comments I wrote earlier. It’s … creepier than what I want right now but I am curious

High school setting / romance

I just can’t get into it! The art and stories just didn’t draw me in.

• Cuprum’s Bride - I read this chapter and previewed Ch 1 a while ago and just couldn’t get interested enough in the other elements to carry me through. Perhaps if I could read faster
• Tokyo Castle Girl’s High School Students
• Friday’s Atelier - The scenes with the art are gorgeous and imaginative! The daily life scenes in contrast didn’t compel me to read on (in art and content).
• Flower Shop Kid

Transferring/ends soon

Simply put - it’s leaving the magazine or ending soon, the premise and art didn’t grab my attention, so I moved on without much thought

• Yagi and the Sheep’s Crown
• Dance in the Evening Calm, My Ribbon
• Hinamatsuri
• Immortal Hunting Dog
• Life of the Lottery Vengeful Ghost
• Red Tsubaki
• The North-North-West Clouds Move
• Rekiyomi
• A Bride’s Story
• B-Komachi
• Dan the Iron Robot

Annoyed me

• Furo Run - I tried it out but … got bored. There didn’t seem to be much more substance than the literal title - run then bathe. I also miss running due to an injury so page after page of running bliss shots made me sad which surprised me.
• Introduction to Minerology the MC’s shelf boobs and all the crotch shots just really annoy me I wanted to like it so I explored volume 1 to give it another chance. No, school girl goes into mountains in a mini skirt and trips, enter panty shot. It just makes me feel like the outdoors potrayal can’t be that authentic if that’s where the mangaka’s focus is. Well, that’s my excuse, really I just didn’t want to face those terrible shelf boobs again. I had been hoping for different scenery

War / military

Just not a theme that is entertainment for me, and my Japanese is at entertainment level.

• Smoke and Honey - I was curious and gave it a chance, but no, just not my theme
• Far East Incident
• The Fourteen of the Nine Countries

…

My favorite references

Aside from this whole thread, I go back to these posts again and again to get oriented, make a plan, and check after I read something.

A post above listing everything in the first digital issue (#75) and how long it’s been running/will run by SeanBones (as at Nov 2023)

Two English-language run-downs of everything in Harta by rodan:
Nov 2023 as at issue #109
Jan 2025 as at issue #117

Rodan’s catch up post - reviews by volume of manga related to Harta - very useful to reference if you’re doing any catch-up on continuing series

[MaraVos]

My Harta update:

I’ve gotten back to it, but for the past few weeks I’ve just been working on catching up on ふろラン! But I actually just got caught up. (And now I’m going to reread トネリコ so I can respond to @mitrac’s post!)

The other thing was that switching to physical during issue 88 totally messed with the routine I had developed for Harta. So I guess I’m sticking with digital? Which is definitely a good thing in terms of shelf space!

[MaraVos]

hopefully helpful answers!

@mitrac

I interpreted the story as a child and their mom? But maybe it’s two roommates. I’ll call them Sleepy (the dark haired girl) and Moby (the kid/ roommate)

I think it’s roommates, but now I’m not sure what it is that made me think that. Probably just the way they both behave sort of like adults? If a child I was responsible for woke me up because I slept until 11pm I would freak out about something other than wasting my day off.

@mitrac

Pulling the covers off Sleepy and then sitting silently watching her freak out about her lost day off until she figures out it’s the middle of the night. Or am I misinterpreting that?

I’m pretty sure they actually both slept until 11pm. (Maybe they were out partying late the night before?)

@mitrac

My translation would be: “because I’m weak in the morning, I don’t want to destroy my daily rhythm.” I’m not sure what it’s getting at here.

You’re so close. She’s saying mornings are a weak point for her (like, it’s hard for her to wake up in the morning). I initially thought that was the reason why she was going back to bed, because she has a hard time waking up in the “morning”. And that not wanting to mess up her daily rhythm was sort of an afterthought.

@mitrac

OK, moving on, Moby smells yummy food that Sleepy is cooking and comes downstairs. It’s the middle of the night. But what is going on visually? Sleep throws Moby some meat?

Yup. Moby is trying not to get up and eat and mess up her “internal clock” or whatnot even further. Apparently sensing this, Sleepy throws delicious meat straight into her mouth to entice her to stay up. Now Moby has no choice but to also have cheesy toast with bacon.

@mitrac

And then something about I cook it and you smell it?

This part I’m not so clear on. Perhaps @rodan will help us out!

By the way, it was really fun to revisit this yomikiri! So thanks for reading and asking questions.

[mitrac]

@MaraVos

I’ve just been working on catching up on ふろラン!

I’ll be so interested if you recommend catching up vs jumping in at #75

@MaraVos

switching to physical during issue 88

Epic and very brave even just attempting it, how cool! Someday I’ll do that for one issue

トネリコ reply - Thank You!!!

Thanks so much for rereading it!! I’ve been so excited to finally engage in this club for this reason, to discuss all the various worlds. There is just sooo much to explore.

@MaraVos

If a child I was responsible for woke me up because I slept until 11pm I would freak out about something other than wasting my day off.

yes, reading the room now, I think you must be right

@MaraVos

I’m pretty sure they actually both slept until 11pm. (Maybe they were out partying late the night before?)

Ooooh, so much makes so much more sense with that interpretation and your other notes, thank you! I’m so precious about my sleep now I forgot that was an option the whole thing clicks now, whereas before I was scratching my head thinking - I missed something big but what the heck was it?

@MaraVos

Apparently sensing this, Sleepy throws delicious meat straight into her mouth to entice her to stay up. Now Moby has no choice but to also have cheesy toast with bacon.

Ok, see, this is for me jedi level imaginative interpretation. You’re totally right but I wouldn’t have come up with this.

@MaraVos

By the way, it was really fun to revisit this yomikiri! So thanks for reading and asking questions.

thanks so much for that, I wasn’t sure if I should come with so many questions so it’s great to know you had fun revisiting it!

[rodan]

I reread it too and withheld answering to give @MaraVos an opportunity.

トネリコ

@MaraVos

@mitrac

I interpreted the story as a child and their mom? But maybe it’s two roommates. I’ll call them Sleepy (the dark haired girl) and Moby (the kid/ roommate)

I think it’s roommates, but now I’m not sure what it is that made me think that. Probably just the way they both behave sort of like adults? If a child I was responsible for woke me up because I slept until 11pm I would freak out about something other than wasting my day off.

Two women living together in a tree is also the setup of Hakumei and Mikochi, so it’s certainly Harta-ish that they’re ambiguously housemates.

@MaraVos

@mitrac

And then something about I cook it and you smell it?

This part I’m not so clear on. Perhaps @rodan will help us out!

Yeah she’s saying like - now that she’s given in to staying up instead of going to bed to try to maintain some kind of normalcy, they’ll swap places so she’ll cook her own breakfast and now the other one will be the one who has to smell it.
The そこで嗅いでろ is funny phrasing (underlined by the other repeating it), but it’s phrasing that’s funny because it emphasizes how much it was the smell that got to her - in her mindset right now the two possibilities are being the person cooking, and the person smelling! (seems like the other one waits until hers is done before eating too so she gets at least one panel’s worth of smelling in)

---

It is always interesting about reading in a second language how little misinterpretations early on from having difficulty with subtleties of the exposition can be difficult to break through and end up changing the feel of the work (like I remember 薬屋のひとりごと was a book for me where I never really recovered from just not being on the right wavelength during the early exposition). I suppose one benefit of 読み切り is the lower stakes and ease of going back and rereading. And certainly answering those kinds of questions is a benefit of a book club!

I’m always curious to see if there’s identifiable language things to point out for where the interpretations diverged with something like this, in case it’s helpful. Here I suppose maybe just in general in the beginning part her tone and demeanor are more like, conveying bad news her friend would want to know about (i.e. “Oh no, we slept through the entire day!!”) than like a prank or pointing out something that’s bad for her friend but not herself.

And along with the trouble with the rectangular captions (yeah it’s her thinking), this part has the whole setup for the bit later with the meat in terms of the character’s thought process:

That 「いやいや！寝るんだったよね！」is like - “No! You needed to sleep!” trying to talk herself into going back to sleep instead of being tempted by the food (like how she’s being right before and after), using, I would say, the “んだ for commands” at the end of this article.

That’s the kind of seeding where like - if you have in the forefront of your mind that that character is actively fighting with herself to go back to bed and avoid the temptation of food, then it’s easier to get why she would next think しまった！ if she ate food, and harder if not.

Not necessarily helpful analysis, so sorry if it’s 余計なお世話, I just think the process of interpreting text/manga is interesting!

---

@mitrac

@MaraVos

By the way, it was really fun to revisit this yomikiri! So thanks for reading and asking questions.

thanks so much for that, I wasn’t sure if I should come with so many questions so it’s great to know you had fun revisiting it!

I second the thanks for reading and asking questions! I immediately reread the story too and enjoyed it as well! Any time!
(I’m sure @fallynleaf would vouch that number of questions should be no concern at all! )

[mitrac]

トネリコ

@rodan

The そこで嗅いでろ is funny phrasing (underlined by the other repeating it), but it’s phrasing that’s funny because it emphasizes how much it was the smell that got to her - in her mindset right now the two possibilities are being the person cooking, and the person smelling! (seems like the other one waits until hers is done before eating too so she gets at least one panel’s worth of smelling in)

Ah ok, that is a funny contrast and makes sense.
You’re exactly right, earlier misunderstandings meant this part was a lost cause. And I appreciate so much you going out of your way to think about what those early clues might have been.

That made me realise, in longer manga series and children’s books, I’ve relied on context to interpret things when I have an issue, then I go back to reread with that interpretation. But I haven’t regularly practiced thinking through - what earlier cues in speech or language etc did I miss (and why) that would have enabled me to get this earlier/ on the first pass?

@rodan

I’m always curious to see if there’s identifiable language things to point out for where the interpretations diverged with something like this, in case it’s helpful. Here I suppose maybe just in general in the beginning part her tone and demeanor are more like, conveying bad news her friend would want to know about (i.e. “Oh no, we slept through the entire day!!”) than like a prank or pointing out something that’s bad for her friend but not herself.

That perspective is so helpful. As MaraVos said, Sleepy’s reaction wasn’t like a prank, and now that you mention it Moby is also more subdued and disappointed looking. And this is spot on where I diverged:

@rodan

That 「いやいや！寝るんだったよね！」is like - “No! You needed to sleep!” trying to talk herself into going back to sleep instead of being tempted by the food (like how she’s being right before and after), using, I would say, the “んだ for commands” at the end of this article

I totally missed that and was confused by that line and why the しまった later. Now it makes sense! I didn’t know about the んだ’s use as a command so you got it exactly - I wasn’t picking up at all that the smell was tempting her and she was trying to convince herself to go back to bed. Picking that up alone would have made me reevaluate other passages.

@rodan

Not necessarily helpful analysis, so sorry if it’s 余計なお世話, I just think the process of interpreting text/manga is interesting!

I’m so thankful you did that! Whereas before I thought the one shots might be too hard, I feel like this is just what I need and I have a new way to figure out what I missed, plus such kind support

I reread the story after going through both of your responses. I found a few other places where I had brushed over or missed clues. My early misunderstandings really compounded

It is such a cute story now that I understand it!

[rodan]

Here’s my post on October’s Harta!

Harta 118

[mitrac]

Harta #75 update

January 2025
#75 home post

🍵 general club chat

I’ve been enjoying Harta a lot since starting it. I have only read a handful of manga with book clubs here before this, so casually browsing through the magazine gave me a good sense of what visually captures my attention and what kind of themes I am most drawn to.

It’s so exciting to explore the magazine based on my own enthusiasm, ability, and time available, yet, still have this club for support. Thanks so much everyone for being there and making it so easy for me to find your Harta #75 posts in the wiki table (post #2 above). I thoroughly enjoyed reading your thoughts on the series I started so far! It was also fantastically useful to have details like start/end issues for the series, whether they are transferring etc. I would not have approached this magazine without all the effort that rodan and SeanBones put into their posts. Thank you so much!

Reviewing the thread I also found this gem I’m going to add to the wiki post #2:

• Rodan’s catch up post - reviews by volume of manga related to Harta - very useful to reference if you’re doing any catch-up on continuing series

reading notes

Here’s what I’ve read from Harta #75 since my last update. All spoilers tagged

☄️ ライカの星 Ch 1 / Laika's star (new series)

I’m not sure if I like the theme yet due to the strong revenge element, but I’m sticking with it and loving the world and art aesthetic. I have big hopes for the ムーシュカ character to pull things up and am looking forward to the next chapter/issue already.

World images I love

…

🥷 姫と忍 / The Princess and the Ninja (one-shot)

The scenery and world art are fantastic. The mangaka has a ways to go to catch up their character art to that standard but overall very fun, I enjoyed it.

As with the last one-shot, I struggled with this (at first). I suspected a similar cause: missing some language cues to fully grasp what is going on, and that compounding as the story progressed. So when I reread it I looked closer at what I may have missed, and I also challenged my assumptions about what was going on. That worked great!

In this case what threw me most was the missing conversion where the princess would have told the ninja she’s going to the isolation room for this rice. After I realised that’s what their conversation was alluding to as they snuck through the castle, the various pieces fell into place

I really was surprised - I was sure I would have so many questions, but clearing up that first part solved everything else.

Favourite art

Nice detail

The monster at the end

…

👾 紙一重りんちゃん Ch 14 / Paper thin Rin

I thought this was silly and fun and considered following this series, but this was a one off short story. The normal format (from before and continuing from Harta #76) is a 4-koma that either I don’t get or it’s just not funny for me, probably a bit of both. So I won’t continue this one, but I enjoyed this story and doing some searches to puzzle out some of the jokes here (like the 嵐 / あらし (boy band) reference.

central theme/ character in this story, thoughts

AI friend prototype circa 2020.

Little did we know, the “nonsensical AI computer logic” humor this story relies on would be history within a few years of this being published. It’s interesting reading it now thinking, wow, this theme would be handled totally different today. And in just 5 more years, teenagers who grew up with today’s AI will be missing the context for the humor here. Considering that, ドラえもん at 50+ has aged rather gracefully.

…

🍽 Dungeon Meshi

I heeded warnings and tried to read it from the start first. The art and story telling didn’t capture me at all. I tried the anime which annoyed me. So I thought it wasn’t for me.

But Ch 65 in Harta 75… that was interesting! The art is much improved, the マルシル character seemed more interesting and complex, I could tell there was an overarching plot, etc. That got me interested and I tried to get a synopsis to catch up… but for those who know the series I guess you already know what I discovered is the mangaka put in a lot of effort to build this world slowly and consistently chapter by chapter. Each question I asked turned into a few more.

So I decided I should just wait to let myself forget what I read and give my Japanese time to improve, then I’ll try again to read it from the start or close like volume 4. It won’t be my highest priority catch-up, a 9 volume build up to Harta is quite a commitment, we’ll see!

catch-up notes

This section is for discussing continuing series - manga running in Harta before the first digital issue #75.

👖 昴とスーさん Vol 1 / The Strange Life of Subaru

This one hadn’t been on my radar, but after discovering it has a mysterious air / sci fi twist, yet it’s very daily life/ easy to read, I jumped in from volume 1 (Harta 75 is in the middle of volume 4). I like the art style - it feels grounded in reality yet has a slight flowy/whimsical air that suits the mood of the story well.

It’s a gentle read (I estimate around Natively 22-23), and I like the daily life insights! Since we’re following Subaru around his everyday, the normal background scenes around the home and town give a glimpse into normal Japanese life. For several scenes I had even recently discussed that aspect of Japanese life just before seeing them in the manga (pulling out the futon for sleeping, good weather for drying laundry announced on the weather forecast, the use of はいはい as a rude, “yeah, yeah I know (give it a rest)”).

Thoughts on vol 1 (spoilers blurred)

I like the concept exploring the daily life struggles of how a grown man gets along in the body of a kid. How does it change his daily interactions with strangers - and partner?

End of volume thoughts: I was so curious about whether it would go into detail about what’s going on / how we got here. When it foreshadowed in Ch 5 that we were approaching this topic, I was expecting (my conjecture) to learn some vague / unknown reason for his transformation, and then perhaps see him getting changed into a different age after their attempt to undo the original transformation. I love that instead of jumping straight into the fog, Ch 6 gives a flashback to a scene earlier in Subaru and Mio’s relationship. This is great, I was hoping for more depth and it’s delivering, both with the flashback and not creating a formulaic scenario that they change his age each time it’s super foggy.

Now I’m moving on to #76 and continuing my 昴とスーさん catch-up

[mitrac]

FYI Harta issues through 2024 are now all on Natively (it’s necessary to send Brandon a list of links manually for this series as it is a special case there). I added a link to this club to the first digital issue and he let me know in the response so I sent the list.

[mitrac]

Harta #76

February 2025

general club chat
I can’t believe it, in the space of a month I’ve gone from “maybe I should start exploring 1 story a month in Harta” to “I can’t get enough of this magazine”

new series

🧟 生き残った6人によると / What 6 Survivors Told

This looks playful and fun. I was a bit worried that neither romance or zombie apocalypse are my genre, but actually the humorous action sequences and wit are pretty entertaining. Love this how she does a parcour over the zombie and apologises

👥️ 真柴姉弟は顔が固い

I skipped because the art and story just didn’t capture my attention, I’m generally not up for the school setting

one-shots

What a treat, I enjoyed all of these.

👺 天狗の赤い髪

That was a fun insight into a period manga! The art captured my attention right away.

There’s no explanation why this guy is there right? It seems like a whimsical and creative take on a moment in the life of a westerner attempting to get outside of the officially allowed places to visit in Japan before 1868.

I wonder if the character is (very loosely) based on Heinrich Schliemann, a German businessman and amateur archaeologist (I consulted the very short list on Wikipedia of people who visited Japan before 1868 for similar names at the end of that period; the list itself is fascinating). Although he was only in Japan for 2 months and I didn’t find any evidence that he strayed outside of where he was allowed to go, the name was similar, and some details of his life (being a rebel and learning languages quickly), it struck me as perhaps some of his story might have been an inspiration. Maybe not, but here is an article if you’re curious about him.
German’s diary offers rare look of life in Tokyo in mid-19th century | The Asahi Shimbun: Breaking News, Japan News and Analysis

Gorgeous and playful cover:

I love this panel and the background text with all the reasons he stands out:

⚗️夏にビードロ

That was a cute story. I probably missed some nuance as I didn’t dwell on it much. I had no idea what a ビードロ was. It seems to be a glass toy for kids that you blow into and it makes a sound. Here’s a video that shows one:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aj_Xh5Fsorc

🌾 さよなら100円

I liked this story, I could definitely identify with the hard lesson of how to deal with loss and change in others. I liked how this panel highlighted both characters, it really got that feeling across of the boy turned away awkwardly trying to pretend he didn’t see his old friend, but obviously he’s thinking about him and knows exactly where he’s sitting.

👜 向かいの彼女 / A girl the other side of me

I loved this story and it worked so well as a one-shot. For me it brought out possibilities - this idea that just by seeing someone everyday (but from a distance), you might wonder if there would be a chance to become friends. Smiley girl treats the whole situation as if they are already great friends, and I like that world view. Also, in smiley girl I saw a lot of my earlier self, a kind of playfulness and optimism that I lost over time. It’s hard to explain but this one really struck a chord with me.

continuing series

☄️ ライカの星 / Laika's star Ch 2

The art in this series is simply adorable. The story is so unique I find it irresistible and I can’t wait for the next installment.

This portrayal of a dog-friendly star goddess in the flashback sequence was pretty convincing actually:

How to make self-destruct mode look adorable:

oh no, Laika’s sad eyes when Mushuka decided not to go back to Earth with her

I like the distinctly different look of Earth compared to Laika’s star:

…

Edit: I forgot to put notes in for 手つかずの国. It seems to be a series of one shots (you don’t need to catch up before this point). This one was a story about giant てるてる坊主 (normally those little ghost looking dolls you see hanging, I learned they are meant to help bring good weather / clear skies). It was a great story, I’m glad I read it!

For any other series not listed here, if/when I catch up on it later, I’ll link notes from my Harta 75 or Harta 76 (below) homes posts depending on which issue was that manga’s first digital appearance.

catch-up notes

This section is for discussing continuing series that require catchup - i.e. manga running in Harta before the first digital issue #75.

First, notes for what I was catching up on at the time of this original post:

👖 昴とスーさん / The Strange Life of Subaru - Vol 2 Ch 7-10

The links to all my catch-up notes for 昴とスーさん are in my Harta 75 home post.

This went from “I like it” to “I love it and keep thinking about the characters”. Until the end of volume 1, it felt quite light and daily life, but wasn’t really scratching a deeper surface for me. Now, it really is getting into the depths of feelings and the reality of the situation as it’s set up. It’s actually the first manga where I’ve become attached to the characters.

Now and then I’ll realise something like (not spoilers after you know the premise/first few chapters), oh no, even if Subaru grows up they can’t be a romantic partner because everyone knows them as brother and sister, or, where is Subaru’s family and how do they deal with that?, and, what if someone finds out that Subaru isn’t in school, is Mio going to prison?

Something about the art conveys so much of the feeling of the scenes for me. I have no idea if these images look objectively nice outside of the context of the story, but for me, I can’t get enough of it, for some reason I love the atmosphere.

Here are collected links to catch-up notes for series whose first digital appearance is from Harta 76, which I’ll continue to add to as I catch up on these!

🌄 山を渡る -三多摩大岳部録 / Traversing Mountains - Records of the Santama University Mountaineering Club

• In Harta 76, this series appears from Ch 16. This is episodic so I’ll start with just Vol 1 and decide from that point if I will read Vol 2-3 or just jump into Harta 76)
• Vol 1: Ch 1 notes in catch-up section of Harta 79 post

🗺 Continuing series I still intend to catch up on

I’m catching up with one series at a time. In my Harta 75 post I listed the は and る series. Here are the た series I am most interested in (whose first digital issue is in Harta 76).

• ふしぎの国のバード (“Isabella Bird in Wonderland” / “Unbeaten Tracks in Japan”) (There are 7 volumes preceding Harta 75 which starts at Ch 36 Pt 4. I’ll read vol 1 before deciding how much catch-up I want to do before following it in Harta)
• ニコラのおゆるり魔界紀行: The art just looks so fun. Harta 76 starts from Ch 20, so unfortunately, to catch up fully I would need to buy all volumes (Volume 4 starts from chapter 18). And I’ll be well past the Harta issue where this series ends (around 80 or 81) by the time I catch up. So this will be more of a nice discovery through Harta, that I probably end up not reading in the magazine at all.

[Akashelia]

Looks like you need a combo breaker! There you go!

[mitrac]

Harta #77

February 2025

🍵 general club chat

I’m three issues in and now feel like I’ve got the hang of this magazine. I love the depth of creativity more and more. I’m enjoying the club as well, navigating through comments from those who have commented above before me!

I read an autotranslated version of the Harta Wikipedia page. It emphasised some of the unique aspects of Harta’s editing, like the high number of new authors (>60%) and their commitment to new stories (no adaptations).

I’ve continued to write some general comments in my wrap up in addition to specific reactions as I found that so valuable when I was just getting started.

All spoilers blurred/hidden, you can safely open the high level dropdowns to see general comments, snippets of cover art, cultural tidbits, and all the other rabbit holes I went down.

Also, I have settled on an easy way to track progress.

At the start of an issue I get a screenshot of the toc. I draw squares in the left column in teal for what I’ll read right away and cross off as I go. Next to the titles for everything else, purple circles means I want to catch-up/ read later. Brown slash means skip. It makes it a lot less overwhelming! Then just check off as I go. If I check it off in brown it means skip in future. If I check off with a true blue slash it means I just looked at the art. Here’s what it looks like (an older version, I’m not keeping this checklist up to date here)

cover story

I haven’t been mentioning these, but I loved this one. I just explored one room at a time each time I opened the issue. Very cool concept to have a mine staffed by ghosts, I loved their job description😅

debuts

🌙 夜の名前を呼んで / Call the Name of the Night (Prologue and Ch 1)

This was favorited on Natively by @hotdogsuplex so I’ve been looking forward to starting this one. This is a snippet from the preview that was in issue 76:

Ooh, who are those little guys in the lower right?!

They remind me of Wormie-chan from とんがり帽子

ch1 and prologue comment

It looks like the night comes into the room starting from Mira’s heart. She’s clutching it and it gets starry before everything else, hmm… from the preview in 76 it says that it comes from her weakness, so I guess that’s why レイ wants her to build confidence.

Ch 1 - I don’t really get why the chapter is called 8am, maybe that’s when レイ leaves?

This looks cute, I can’t tell at all where it’s going, I’m guessing a coming of age story, so curious!

🧤 先生、今日どうですか

17 yo sees a future where she gets married to her family’s 33 yo tenant, the premise of what appears to be an obsessive love story. Romance isn’t really my genre anyway, and fantasising about this situation isn’t my thing at all. I tried to keep an open mind and read it. In a few scenes the art accentuates the connotations of the premise, so the intention is pretty clear. I looked ahead 10 issues to see how it developed, but the direction it took annoyed me even more so a skip from me. さようなら先生!

The most interesting thing was dude's shirts...

Yes, creepy!

…

👯‍♀️ 帝都影物語 Imperial Shadow

I made up the English title, so apologies if it’s way off

This was so tough for me, I’m going to skip for now and read it later when I revisit this issue again catching up with other harder series like Dungeon Meshi etc

@MaraVos

Oh nooooo … this one is way harder than the others for some reason

Thank you for writing that, it’s not just me this felt like it must be 29+ to me

one-shots

🎭 めんや The Mask Maker

This is by Kouhei Shibata, the same mangaka as the cover story.

I thought the visuals were so hard to interpret, it was a relief to see MaraVos mention that, too. And I also had the same confusion about this being a rerun that rodan cleared up (it’s a continuation of a previously published story).

But once I got it and went through it again, I liked it. (Masks she creates with powers that she uses to clean up an onsen site and bathe with her cute animal friends). The world is fun, it would be cool to see more.

So far each issue has featured てるてる坊主. Here’s this issue’s with the creative caveat that you have to look at it upside down:

I like bear with his garbage disposal mask

🪴 緑色の牙と恋 / Green fangs and love

Did that just happen? OMG I have to process this futuristic craze for genetically modified humaniod carnivorous plants

The premise: A hot gardener and said plants, what could go wrong?

continuing series

🌐 手つかずの国 / Uncharted territory #5

What a unique series. In this story, there is a stain on a purse that the daughter got for free from a stranger. The stain has a face and can move around and it turns out it just wants to hang out with the family This one had me laughing and feeling so sorry for dad. So bizarre, but in a good way. I’ll be so sad this one ends after one more story in #79. This series wasn’t collected and I can’t find anything else by this mangaka - what a shame as I really enjoy the story telling.

☄️ ライカの星 / Laika's star Ch 3

It’s definitely worth reading this manga viewing the full 2 page spreads as there are some striking ones. This manga has such an emotional intensity with contrasting art and characters, it’s a wild ride. Confusingly, I love it.

I thought about why most revenge stories have turned me off in the past to the extent I nope out, but this one doesn’t bother me. I think it’s because it’s depicted in a way that the reader can understand Laika and choose to empathise. But the story telling doesn’t demand empathy. There’s a subtle difference there that allows for ambiguous feelings. The companion dogs help balance the story telling as we see their wavering commitment to Laika’s cause, but 100% backing of Laika. And of course the gorgeous doodle style art gives an air of whimsy. A severe art style or the absence of Laika’s companions would have made this tough going for me.

specific comments (spoilers)

Love the flowers shadow (and literal foreshadowing) in the cover image.

I’m interpreting this as Laika channeling the star goddess here

Laika your emotional intensity is terrifying

I like how the lettering uses the same art style

The author made a comment in the back matter relevant to this chapter's editing (spoilers)

I found this insightful

ライカのデザインを竹馬に乗った大にしたい私と 意味不明だからやめさせたい担当とで戦い、負け ましたが、今思えば負けて良かった
Autotranslate: I fought a battle between me, who wanted to make the Laika design a giant on stilts, and the person in charge who wanted me to stop it because it didn’t make sense, and I lost, but now I think it was a good thing that I lost.

That made me think of this:

This shot was bizarrely out of proportion and I wonder if this is where a hint of the stilts remains It looked at first like Laika was being hoisted up on a pedestal of flowers, then got stretched out (here), and then the full grown monster canine.

…

🧟 生き残った6人によると / What 6 Survivors Told Ch 2

A bit of harmless fun… or is it

My kinda girl love the softball shot that MaraVos mentioned

@MaraVos

One thing digital really has going for it is that two-page illustrations are a lot more impressive when they’re not interrupted by the spine of a book. (I still prefer physical in almost every other way

Same here! Although I have to say this magazine would be inaccessible for me in physical. Both for kanji reading and space requirements
…

アンリの靴 / Anri, a Shoemaker - I’m now caught up and following this one! My comments for this one are below in the “previous issues/catch-up notes” section since it spans pre-Harta 75 to the current issue.

For any other series not listed here or in the catch-up section below, if/when I catch up on it later, I’ll link notes from my Harta 75 or Harta 76 homes posts depending on which issue was that manga’s first digital appearance.

end matter

🗺 The stuff after the last manga (the small toc)

Like everything in Harta, it’s a lot!

It took me until now to really understand what is going on in all these sections. I’m the third volume in and just now finding that the content in the back is getting easier to approach. Now that I can recognise the majority of works visually, it just makes it so much easier to get the context. It is still way more dense than I have stamina to follow, but I’ll look at some of the reader’s comments on the stories I’m following, or the one liners from the authors (they are often just little thoughts from the mangaka’s daily life, but there was an insightful one for Laika). I don’t find the previews particularly helpful, but after reading the new work in 77, for example, I’ll go back and look at the previews in 76. It’s fun to see some extra details and what they wanted to highlight in the preview.

For one, this section is generally a lot more text dense and visually it’s easier to tell what’s going on after I could recognise characters from the different series plus distinguish them from new characters and previews of upcoming work.

So for anyone new to the magazine, you may as well skip it until you’re a few issues in. Aside from the tables that show which manga are coming up, and those are pretty obvious how to use, you don’t really need anything here.

But it is a lot of fun now that I’m getting the hang of it. What’s incredible is the commitment to putting in comics everywhere! There is the cute miner エルツ at the start of the reader comments, a single panel cartoon on the editoral page, the mangaka comments each have cute little icons, bonus illustrations that relate to some stories or the cover, a manga about previews of the next issue, little sketches accompany various Harta promotions, a one page colour series, the full cover image (the spine is cool), and other stuff I probably forgot. I’ll save the most text dense stuff for later when I’m catching up on harder series. I figure I’ll have at least another few passes through all issues, so I’m just reading a bit now and then, and I figure I’ll be a faster reader at the most kanji heavy prose later.

For anyone looking for where to start with the material in the back,

• Since the reader comments are for the issue 2 back, 77 is a great place to start (comments relate to issue 75). Those are really short so it’s easy to just read a couple now and then.
• The mangaka one liners at the end can be funny or relate to the chapter or just be a random detail from their life like what same they’re playing. Those are easy and each one has a cute icon. I liked this one:
  
  

寝起きに虫が胸元にいると思って大慌てで払ったら服のロゴだった。

🐲 日本ニュー古生物紀行 /New Paleontological Journey in Japan

Just a quick shout out to the fantasy paleontology series. I don’t read it but I enjoy the art. Here’s just a snippet

previous issues (75-76) / catch-up notes

🥿 アンリの靴 / Anri, a Shoemaker (Ch 1-5 / Harta 73-77)

This is a great series, and the first few chapters are episodic, so no need to catch up. That said, there are only two chapters pre Harta 75 so catching up is easy and imo worth it. I should have done so right away! I had thought it would be more formulaic / episodic based on the first 3 chapters, but it’s developing quite some depth and showing that it’s more than just making shoes / mending hearts (my initial impression), although even that alone was sufficient to love.

The shoemaker store atmosphere is so charming, and I love the expressiveness of the cat, too.

article related to opening scene (non-spoiler)

I like the opening scene that places you in 浅草 Akasuka near 浅草寺 Sensoji temple (those kanji readings!).

I recognised it but never knew what it was, so I found this article that talks about the famous gate and temple
https://matcha-jp.com/jp/997?page=1

The story is so heartfelt, I’m not sure what else I can say, but here are some reactions for anyone reading along

Ch 1

This was so cute, haha getting paid for half a day’s efforts with the tastiest strawberry sweet is adorable. It’s interesting and nice that Anri’s disability is there but not the focus, if that makes sense. Acknowledged but it isn’t defining her or the story. I’m curious how/if that will come up later

Ch 2

Addressing gender norms and fashion with shoes. Super cool story and weaving in some history there, i love how it follows through all the way to the end result

Ch 3 / Harta 75

Tear jerker this totally makes me want to gift someone custom made shoes

Ch 4 / Harta 76

OK that was a lot about leather. Interesting story, I guess I was expecting more of the same, so it was nice to see the mangaka widening the world a bit

Ch 5 / Harta 77

I love this mentor character! And how this manga is approaching the challenges of a solo young woman in business.

I needed this advice today myself

I need to read this chapter again to get the detailed result - was it a cutter who did shoddy work? I was unsure then why she didn’t think immediately of the guys from Ch 4 who did cutting work for her already.

The new mentor seems to recognise her cat and knows who her mentor was, how mysterious.

…

👖 昴とスーさん / The Strange Life of Subaru - Vol 2 Ch 11-12

The links to all my catch-up notes for 昴とスーさん are in my Harta 75 home post.

Big reveals in Ch 11. Is anyone else reading this one? I’d love to discuss it

spoilers discussion

As far as I understand, in the flashback to Subaru’s first childhood, when he moved to a new town, he got made fun of for saying he didn’t remember anything about his old school. How mysterious, I’m so curious what that’s all about. I loved his boss’s sense of humour and the scene where he gets Mio to tell him how Subaru asked her out

I could write more but I don’t think anyone else is following this one.

This manga has great pacing of the mystery unfolding and relationships.

Some end matter comments

⛏️エルツ / Dazzle : intro to Non-stop loving section (reader comments etc) Harta 75+

Image from Harta 76

New in Harta 75 p 825 OMG I love the concept of this miner that extracts the “something” created when humans are passionate about something!

This is so heart warming, I wanted to put it here (description and autotranslate)
情熱が生み出す作品が、あなたの世界を輝かせる。小さな採掘師。エルツは、人間が何 ねえ、そこから何が見える? かに夢中になっている時に生み出される"あるもの"を探しにやってきた。エルツたち が住む世界では、それが生活に非常に大切なものになるらしい。エルツの仕事っぶりを追いかけながら、彼女の正体を探っていこう。

Works born from passion will make your world shine. A little miner, Ertz came to search for “something” that is created when humans are engrossed in what they see. In the world where Ertz and her friends live, it seems to be very important to life. Follow Ertz’s work and discover her true identity.

💻 ユキと小春 / preview Harta 75-77

Debuts in 75. This is a cute story / manga to preview some of the debuts and one-shots in the next issue, e.g. 76. It took me a while to get it (the first episode) but I think it’s playing on two friends attempting to social distance in the pandemic and read Harta over video call together (the issue is June 2020, so it’s April or May?), but since they live next door it’s not working out.. I like reading this after I’ve read what it’s previewing, it’s easier to understand It ends in 77, I’m curious what comes next

🧊 you can read Harta anywhere and everywhere... / Harta 75 spread

A celebration of the first digital issue of Harta (P 850) - a spread with images and short captions. These are so fun!

I see the illustrations (without the funny captions) repeating in the end matter of 76 and 77

next up issue 78

I’m already loving everything I’m following, and I have 7 series still to catch up on that I am looking forward to… and I’m really looking forward to the two new series starting in the next issue.

I can totally see why @rodan has all this organised in notion the way they do. My notes for discussion here are getting totally out of hand plus I keep other notes on my tablet with more screenshots and impressions for reference.

[rodan]

@mitrac

(the issue is June 2020, so it’s April or May?)

If this comment is about how magazine listed dates are usually a bit later than when the issue was actually on stands - that’s not the case with Harta! So the June 2020 issue came out in June 2020 (and I guess that’s when the story would ostensibly be taking place since it seems like they’re reading… I guess the previews page of this issue that they themselves are portrayed in, somehow).
I think it’s probably because Harta is distributed as a book rather than as a magazine, technically. Which incidentally I learned when I first inquired about Kinokuniya’s magazine subscription service - Harta not being available for that due to apparently technically being books is how I ended up subscribing to a pro wrestling magazine instead. (This was before I knew about digital options).

@mitrac

What’s incredible is the commitment to putting in comics everywhere!

I’ve been told there’s even comics on the obi! Alas the one bit that doesn’t get digitized…

---

I’m really glad you’re enjoying Harta, and enjoy the posts even when I don’t have much to add!
I’m still focusing heavily on clearing out physical 積読 piles in a way that makes it harder to pull attention back to Harta and Harta series (and I bit off a bit more than I can chew amid that with respect to blog post ideas) but I’ll definitely find time to catch back up again, hopefully sooner rather than later.

[mitrac]

@rodan

So the June 2020 issue came out in June 2020

That is a fun fact and consequence of it being classified as a book! Now that you mention it, I read that Harta is sold as a book on the auto translated Wikipedia page, but I didn’t really understand what the consequences might be.

@rodan

I’ve been told there’s even comics on the obi!

Coincidentally I just discovered that! In the back of Harta 77 printed p 1012 (digital p 1014) there is a little section with stories by their mangaka and this edition featured the mangaka doing the obi series at the time. There’s far too much handwriting for me to decipher the cute comic about how the mangaka set up digitally to avoid their cat spilling ink everywhere though, but I will return to it later (those and the editorials will be the end boss, I suspect someday when I’m ready for 峠鬼)

@rodan

I’m really glad you’re enjoying Harta, and enjoy the posts even when I don’t have much to add!

Thanks and glad to hear it! Enjoy your 積ん読 there’s no rush to keep up here, even at my current pace, (I’m expecting to slow down though) it’ll take me 2 years to catch up to what is now the current issue

[rodan]

Cross-posting a Harta sale with some discounts down to 30 yen on a couple of early volumes of various series, just in case it’s useful for anyone in this thread.

[yukitanuki]

I am finally working through Harta and am planning on making a more detailed post about my impressions, but I have a slightly related question first: Does anyone know if ライカの星 has a translation? I am guessing no because I couldn’t find anything, but my mother in law would love this (it’s tradition that I am gifting her comics for every special occasion, so far no manga!) and I can’t gift her a Japanese copy English or any ex-yu language would be great, although I am positive the latter doesn’t exist anyway.

[mitrac]

Yay, looking forward to your impressions!

I’ll be curious if rodan knows of a translation, but I’m also guessing not. It wouldn’t actually take much (she says…) to make a fan translation of the 5 main chapters… if that’s not too wild of an idea. I’m not actually sure how well that would work in terms of the reading experience, but I’d be up to contributing a chapter if you think it would work.

[yukitanuki]

Aww! That’s so nice! I would really like to gift it to her physically (because she always stores the comics in her art school to show her students), so it would be even more effort to do a fan translation because I also need to get it in some kind of book format… But I will think about it! Every time I see a great Manga that I think she would love it has no translation I think there will be more of those heartbreaks in Harta in general, because there has been a few more that I think she would like.

[rodan]

I don’t think there’s an official translation. For what it’s worth though, I can’t really link it, but I did find a readily accessible fan translation quickly searching google for “Laika no Hoshi” (although it’s listed as “Planet Laika”).

I can definitely relate with wanting badly to share manga from the magazine with loved ones who can’t read Japanese! I translated one of Asa Tanuma’s short stories just for the sake of that - it took a surprisingly long time but it was sure fun and rewarding so I’d recommend anyone give it a shot if tempted! I’d have half a mind to take a swing at Laika myself since it would indeed be fun to translate and share.

[yukitanuki]

I read through 煙と蜜 in Harta 75 and didn’t think much about it (obviously missing a lot of context), but now that I am being close to being done with this issue I was wondering which series I should read up on until continuing with Harta 76. Since 煙と蜜 is still running, I was curious about it and read up on it. Am I getting that right that this is a love story between a 12 year old and a 30 year old or are the summaries online wrong? Because if it is that, then I won’t read up on it for sure and will skip it from now on.