I had the same issue with the last IMC poll, I wrote a date but it didn’t show a close date. In the end it did close itself 
6 Likes
The poll is now finished! The winner is one of our longest lasting nominees:
The Promised Neverland・約束のネバーランド
It was first nominated for poll 13 back in 2021.
Now it was nominated by @BillieJoeIsCool in 2021, which presents us with a small challenge, since they last posted on these forums in 2022. So likely we will need a volunteer to run this book club. I’ll give it a week for someone to come forward, if not I’ll run the weekly threads myself.
The other slightly, umm, interesting result, is that we have 5 4 nominations that have all reached the threshold for elimination by getting under 15% for 3 polls in a row:
With The Promised Neverland also leaving as the winner, this means we’ll go from 18/20 nominations to 13/20, so if there’s anything you’ve been on the fence about nominating for fear of taking the final spots, now’s a good time!
(Quick edit: Checked, the rule is <15%, not <=15%, so My Senpai is Annoying and 雪女 just narrowly avoided elimination)
16 Likes
Welp, there go 2 of the 3 non-manga on the nomination list. Now it’s up to Super Frog to save us from completely becoming the Beginner Manga Club.
10 Likes
I should hype up “my senpai is annoying” a lot more, it’s so good, a lot of people just started comparing the other manga or anime with the same tropes to it. It’s also just straight up incredibly wholesome.
7 Likes
Just want to point out 雪女 got exactly 15% here so if I’m understanding correctly is not cut yet?
5 Likes
Ah, I made a transcription error copying it to my spreadsheet where I check the scores over time, you are correct.
4 Likes
I’m happy to run the Promised Neverland book club. I’ve been looking forward to rereading this one and potentially carrying on the series if others are interested. I’ll try and get something up this week.
10 Likes
Nomination Post:
骨ドラゴンのマナ娘 1 / The Skull Dragon’s Precious Daughter
Natively: Level 26
Full furigana: Yes*
Summary
An abandoned girl finds her way to a dragon’s lair, and becomes raised as his daughter. Later, the girl finds she has magical aptitude and finds her way back to human civilization, under the watchful gaze of her bone dragon guardian.
Availability
Physical: Amazon JP | CD Japan
Digital: Bookwalker | Kindle
Personal Opinion
A cute little found family story in a fantasy setting that I found randomly on Bookwalker for free (though that offer is likely over by the time you’re reading this, it ends tomorrow at time of posting). I had fun
Pros and Cons
Pros
- I found it a pretty cute found family story.
- Probably a decent intro to fantasy type manga as it doesn’t go overboard on the fantasy lingo.
- The art is very detailed
Cons
- I put an asterisk on the “full furigana” because this book really likes its furigana puns. So the furigana is often saying something different to the reading of the kanji.
- It’s on the higher difficulty of the book club. It’s about the same as Frieren, maybe a little higher depending on your tolerance for the aforementioned puns, but on the other hand it’s lower in text density.
- Eve is a small child in chapter 1, and so speaks in hiragana only. She grows out of it by chapter 2 though.
Pictures
First Three Pages of Chapter One
Chapter 1 is very low text density, even by the standard of this book, so probably worth looking into the additional pages for 3 more representative pages from chapter 2.
19 Likes
I’m not too active as I was anymore, but I’m glad this was chosen! I might reread when you guy(s) start!! (but I don’t have time to run it anymore, sorry <3)
5 Likes
I just bought this during the sale, after seeing you reading it on Natively!
4 Likes
I just read chapter one and in addition to the very important goals of
人脈 コネ
金銭 カネ
健康 ホネ
I saw the kanji for apple
This looks cute and not too hard.
4 Likes
If anyone wants to pre-buy a future poll winner, the first two volumes of 現実もたまには嘘をつく are half off.
5 Likes
The Promised Neverland home thread is up
10 Likes
I usually participate in the ABBC, but I have a nomination that would fit the ABBC except it doesn’t contain furigana, so I’m sharing it here. Maybe I’ll also suggest it in the ABBC (since it would be perfect except for the no furigana part).
午后のあくび (afternoon yawning)
Natively: Level 22
Full furigana: No
Summary
This is… kinda hard to describe.This is a collection of short (4 pages) stories about weird and magic stuff happening in the protagonist daily life.
We’ll meet a talking cat showing shortcuts throughout the city, an anti-sleep hat that may not work as expected, a shop that only accept acorns as currency, kanjis escaping from a book with 逃 trying to run away while 隠 and 秘 try to stay hidden…
The whole thing has a very relaxed, cosy and dreamy vibe. The drawing itself is super cute.
Availability
BookWaker
AmazonJP
CDJapan
Ebook Japan
Some chapters are available for free on the website.. There are three books in the series.
Personal Opinion
This is something I discovered through the french translation at the library. After reading the first volume in french I bought the second one in japanese at a japanese bookstore.
This is quite easy to read since each story is always 4 pages long, which means we could read one, two or three per week, and people would not even need to participate in all weeks.
The japanese inside is not too hard, but there are no furigana and some magical characters can talk funny with some made up words.
Pros and Cons
Pros
- Easy to divide, readable in small bites.
- Fairly short. Could be a quick, simpler book between two longer, harder ones.
- Fairly simple japanese with a couple twists.
- A “feel good” read.
Cons
- No furigana at all
- No overarching plot. It’s only short stories
- Pages for the physical print are larger than standard manga, so the text might been a bit small on e-readers.
- Might not be challenging enough for this club ?
Pictures
30 Likes
This is quite a fun nomination for the BBC! The ABBC discussed the furigana question at length not too long ago and there is a rule for full furigana in that club, so I’d say you found the right home for the nomination.
11 Likes
With the current bookclub coming to an end, that means we are one week away from the start of the next pick!
There’s still time to grab a copy and join us for The Promised Neverland - starts Sep 28th!
7 Likes
In case this one wins the next round, they are free the first 5 tomes on amazon I just got them. Also Made in abyss is only 11Y the first 7 tomes. Really good deals out there. Maybe I will nominate that in the future, it’s a good series.
4 Likes
Welllll… yes, ish. It’s well-written, and the art is amazing, but a lot of it… highly questionable. It’s been nominated for the Intermediate club in the past, and remains, to date, the only series that’s ever been vetoed off the nomination list.
2 Likes
what do you mean, highly questionable? :o
1 Like